Mikan's take on the MMORPG gaming lifestyle
by Dinasauur
Summary: A story of two popular university students who falls in love through an online RPG game. My story is written with an inspiration from, "Love O2O," a popular Chinese drama series. Rated T for now but may change to M in later chapters. MxN Pairing.
1. Chapter 1

Hi guys! I'm Dina ^-^ welcome to my story! This is my first time writing a fanfic so please do read and leave a review so I know if my story is any good :D Thank you for reading in advance, I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

A bloodcurdling scream pierced through the misty and dark forest as a female was tossed into the air, followed by another character in the same manner, and both fell onto the dirt in a heap of mess. Before they could make another move, the monster came charging at them with a roar and tossed them to the side once more. All that could be seen was the remainder of life in their eyes diminished to a point-blank nil and a second later, their bodies went limp and were enveloped in a shimmery blinding white aura before breaking into shards and pieces and vanished entirely.

\- IRL-

Mikan's eyes (which has been glued to the screen for hours) flew towards where the players have fallen and she let out a frustrated growl.

 _What. The. Heck. The monster is huge! Even IceQueen and Guild Master died._

Mikan rubbed her temples for a quick second while the screws in her brain worked efficiently over which combination skills would be the most effective to defeat the monster boss. Placing her slender fingers back on the keyboard and mouse, she pressed one of the keys in the quick slot section to use the potion to heal herself before directing her attention back to the boss who is currently evading the attacks from her partner. With a quick huff in the air and renewed determination, Mikan sent her character flying towards the huge monster before spamming all her special skills and main attack. She watched the HP bar that belonged to her target go down steadily and let her fingers swipe across the keyboard gracefully and swiftly, pulling all types of combo attacks on the monster. After landing the final blow, it staggered backwards and let out a roar before being knocked down completely. Mikan finally let a small smile grace her features as she watched a white aura swirl around the boss before breaking into tiny pieces, just like it had done to her fellow teammates previously. The laptop screen flashed and directed all the players back to the exact same location where they had just fought, only now anything that was broken or out of place due to the battle was fixed, as if the fight never occurred. Even the location setting was cleared of any mist and dark looming clouds and was replaced with a bright blue sky alongside a gentle wind blowing through the trees, swaying the leaves and playing with the tips of the hair of the players present. A message popped up on the side of her screen with a _ping!_ and Mikan quickly opened up the chat room, her mouse arrow passing by several sections before stopping on _Party_ and she clicked it open.

 _IceQueen_ : Thank you, Miki. You really helped me out here.

 _MikiOrange_ : You're welcome!

 _ShadowxManipulator_ (aka. Guild Master): As expected of the top female player in this server! I am proud to have you in my guild ;D

 _MikiOrange_ : lol thx

Just then, a small light illuminated the sky and an item hovered in the center of it. It came down slowly and Mikan watched as ShadowxManipulator stepped forward to take the item.

 _ShadowxManipulator_ : Wow. The Almighty Magic Necklace? You're so lucky Ice! Here, take your equipment.

 _IceQueen_ : It's _Your Highness_ peasant. We aren't of close terms yet where you can call me whatever you want.

 _MikiOrange_ : LOLOl xD

 _ShadowxManipulator_ : Ouch! Cold as always X.X no wonder you're the Ice Queen

Mikan amusedly watched her two teammates exchange banters back and forth while sipping her juice when she noticed 3 other players, one of them belonging to the top 10 players in the server, come up to where she was standing. Just then, another message popped up on her screen, separate from the _Party_ chat room. She clicked on it and saw that it was a message from another player in the _All_ chat room.

 _Great-Master_ : Hey miki orange, interested in a duel with me?

Mikan recognized the IGN (In Game Name) as one of the trio standing near her and she raised a single eyebrow as if to contemplate whether she should accept the request or not.

 _MikiOrange_ : Hmm sure!

 _Great-Master_ : There should be a reward prize for whoever wins the duel. We'll use that necklace the boss dropped as the stakes. How about it?

 _MikiOrange_ : Ohh so you're eyeing the necklace. It isn't mine though :O It belongs to IceQueen.

 _ShadowxManipulator_ : Hey, it isn't fair if only you gain something out of the duel. What about our winning side?

 _Great-Master_ : Then I'll battle you icequeen. And if I lose, I'll give you the Almighty Magic Ring from the same set.

 _ShadowxManipulator_ : Again, not fair! You're one of the top 10 players in this server, fsure you're going to win this duel. Ice witch here is nowhere near your level -.-#

 _Great-Master_ : What do you think, icequeen?

 _IceQueen_ : I have no time for bumpkins like you. I'm out of here.

 _Great-Master_ : Wait! How about you let miki orange fight in your place then? It's fair that way.

 _IceQueen_ : Only if I get the prize.

 _MikiOrange_ : lol the duel is on. When and where?

 _Great-Master_ : 8:30 p.m. at the tavern on the outskirts of Northern Forest. I'll see you there.

Mikan whooped a little on her seat from the excitement of the pvp (player vs player) challenge with a high ranking player. When her eyes glued back to the screen, she came to realize that she had entirely forgotten the existence of her partner, _CelebReo_ , until she received yet another separate message, this time, as a _whisper_ from him. She shook her head in wonder at her being absentminded but then blamed it on him being too quiet. Nodding in approval of her explanation, she giggled to herself and opened up the private chat.

 _CelebReo_ : Wanna take a walk in the forest with me?

 _MikiOrange_ : um. sure?

 _CelebReo_ : I have something to talk about with you ;]

 _MikiOrange_ : Something bad? :o

 _CelebReo_ : Nah nothing like that. Let's go

 _MikiOrange_ : Alrighty :p

Mikan quickly switched the chat room to the _Party_ tab and bid her fellow teammates goodbye before clicking 'leave' on the team icon and followed her in-game husband.

After having walked some time with her partner _,_ boredom overcame Mikan and she wondered what's keeping him so quiet. _Geez, enough of the romantic walk...I want to go to the dungeons already._ After waiting a bit more, she rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh and proceeded to break the silence.

 _MikiOrange_ : Ah..Reo, are there monsters in this area?

 _CelebReo_ : Miki, we've been a couple for more than 8 months. You're still calling me that? Isn't it a bit weird?

 _MikiOrange_ : Isn't it more weird to call you CelebReo? Or just celeb? lol

 _CelebReo_ : Haha, that's not what I meant. Why don't you call me by a nickname? ;)

Just then, a couple passed by this duo and Mikan caught the chat dialogue box above their head and then proceeded to fake gag at what she read, "Honey honey, can you help me with today's task pwease?"

 _MikiOrange_ : That's what you want? For me to call you 'honey'? xD

 _CelebReo_ : Something like that would be nice. We are a couple, after all

 _CelebReo_ : Miki, are you enrolled in college in Tokyo?

Mikan hesitated. She didn't know what to say, it IS an online game and she doesn't know who he is in real life. _But on the other hand, we are both in a guild named_ Tokyo Reign _where most members are from Tokyo itself and that already gives it away where I'm from...gah, who cares!_ She gingerly tapped the keys on her laptop and was about to hit 'enter' when another _ping!_ sound came, letting her know that her online husband sent her another message.

 _CelebReo_ : I'm also in Tokyo, should we meet up?

 _CelebReo:_ I'll treat you to dinner ;D

 _CelebReo:_ I know a really good Chinese restaurant

Okay, now THIS is a big no no. Pressing the 'backspace' several times, Mikan quickly thought of an excuse and responded to him in the most non-offending manner.

 _MikiOrange:_ Ah..that won't be necessary. We're just having a good time playing the game :)

 _CelebReo:_ You know, there is saying called, "You never know who's behind the screen"

 _CelebReo:_ It can be anyone y'know? Maybe even a dog playing the game. So I just want to make sure

 _CelebReo:_ I want to see what you look like ;)

 _CelebReo:_ Can you show me a picture of yourself?

Again, Mikan was placed on the spot. She's wary when it came to these things and it's not even that she's self-conscious of her looks or anything. The game did give an option to post their own profile picture for others to see who they are in real life and Mikan hadn't even given it a second thought since she started the game. _What's the point of showing pictures anyway? It's just a game...wait...OH. MAH. GAWD. He must think I'm a man!_ Mikan's face went beet red at the thought of other people thinking of her pretending to be a girl, wearing girly outfits and went about acting like one. After all, she IS the only female player among all the top female players to not have shown her picture. _They must think I'm a creep. But that's still no reason to be showing my picture!_ Her eyes flicked back towards the conversation and was about to come up with another excuse when the screen suddenly went "bzzt" and Mikan's eyes bugged, nearly falling out of the sockets, as she stared at the blank screen.

 _Whut._

 _-x-_

* * *

Hey guys, you've come to the end of the chapter and I know it's short butI hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please leave a feedback to let me know how I did. I accept constructive criticism wholeheartedly and will take it into consideration :D Oh and for those of you wondering why Mikan left the team with IceQueen, ShadowxManipulator, and CelebReo entirely, it's because in these games, players team up temporarily to grind in dungeons or help out others in boss battles and such. And often than not, players requests for help in their own guild to see if anyone wants to join them.

P.s- I was inspired after watching the popular Chinese drama, _Love O2O_ , so I decided to put one of my favorite mangas of all time together with one of my favorite drama series. A lot of parts may be similar to the drama but I changed a huge chunk of the vital points in the drama because I don't intend to copy the plot of the story entirely. I'm only using the story as inspiration so please don't misunderstand ^-^


	2. Chapter 2

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

A mass of pink hair on top of a head poked outside the dorm room to check for any intruders, occasionally muttering hellos to the other student residents passing by her room. She cursed her luck as she solemnly carried out her duty as look-out, observing the hallway and after making sure there are no authorities for the umpteenth time, she put her head back inside before shutting the door.

Anna rushed to Mikan's side, frantically letting her two roommates know that they are safe, "Mikan! Nonoko! No one's around, hurry up before they come to check on us. And it's just the electricity in our room that's out, what's even going on?"

Mikan gave a side glance at one of her best friends and continued to help the other roommate, also her best friend, with the electric panel before moving aside and letting the dark blue-haired girl take over the job. Fixing panel boards isn't exactly under her skill specialties but hey, she still tried. Although all three of them are under the same program- Computer Science, her expertise lies elsewhere, more so in computer software engineering and game designing. But mainly playing on the computer. She grinned at that thought.

"It seems that the circuit have blown out," Nonoko stated matter-of-factly, her hands working in between the wires.

Anna's eyes widened at the statement and to prove just how shocked she was, she dramatically gasped out loud, "But I was only baking in the small oven! And it just blows out? Will we get in trouble with the dorm supervisors?"

Mikan watched the poor girl lower her head in mock shame as Nonoko berated her for not being cautious, "Couldn't you have calculated the amount of current you'd need before baking? With all of us on our laptops and the chargers taking over the outlets, plus the sheer amount of pastries I see on your desk which means you've been baking for a while now, of course the circuit would blow out. We overused it. YOU overused it."

"Oh please! I'm in Computer Science, not Electrical Engineering. It's rubbish to calculate like that," Anna retorted weakly before she whined, "What do I do noww? I haven't finished baking yet and it's not going to turn out well at this rate."

"What else can you do? Share the other pastries with me," was Nonoko's simple reply. Mikan giggled at that and earned herself a glare and a promise of no pastries for the day from the girl beside her. "Oh and you too Mikan! You've been playing nonstop since 11 a.m. and it's been 6 hours already. You two don't know when to stop." Said girl's head shot up at hearing her name and she flushed slightly, pouting when she noticed Anna poking her tongue out playfully at her.

All of a sudden, the lights came back on and Nonoko closed the panel board, flashing a victory smile at the girls before heading back to her own desk. At the same time, Anna cheered and ran back to her desk where her mini oven was at to make sure the fluffy goodies are baking once more. Mikan hopped back to her laptop and attempted to revive it, her brows furrowing deeply when she noticed the laptop wasn't even charging despite the cord being plugged. She simply assumed that the device overheated due to the long hours of her gaming and hadn't the time to check it since she was dragged into the whole circuit-blowing-out fiasco by Anna.

 _What the hell?_

Mikan stared blankly at her laptop and then quickly tried to assess what had gone wrong. Flipping her laptop this way and that way, she couldn't figure out the problem externally and let out a huge sigh of defeat. She then warily put her laptop back down on the large table in the middle of her dorm and just looked around, not knowing what else to do. _Lies_. No, she does know what to do. She's just too lazy to check the internal system and fix it. _Plus, that would take too long. I have a duel in about three hours dammit._

"Oh, this is great! They're back to baking again~ Ahh, our first year is already ending and I still don't have a boyfriend! This is no wonder the girls in comp science and engineering have such a hard time getting boyfriends. What do we even need those boys for when we can handle all the electric work ourselves? We have girl power."

Mikan could hear all of Anna's babbling and called out, "Anna deary, first, it was Nonoko and I who did all the work. And it's no one's fault that you don't have a boyfriend yet. Secondly, my online friend asked me for a picture of myself and I just suddenly disappeared. He's probably thinking I have something to hide! You literally hauled me over to fix your problem and I haven't gone back on to give a response yet."

Anna turned around, looking at Mikan with an expression contorted to one of confusion and then her eyes twinkled in slight recollection. "Ohhh, you mean that dude, whatshisfaceagain...Celeb Reo something, right? Your online hubby in the game? Wahh Mikan! You're already in a-"

"Hold up girl. How do you know that?" Mikan cut her off mid sentence and pointed an accusatory finger at her roomie, "You've been peeping at me playing the game, haven't you?"

Anna pushed away her finger, all the while sporting a sheepish smile. "A-ah, don't worry about the details Mikan. Anyways, are you going to show him your picture?"

"Of course not," was Mikan's curt response. "We're only a couple in the game so we could do the couple quests together. It's just...I don't know, showing my picture is weird? I don't know this guy at all. But at the same time, it's even weirder to immediately log off, which in my case, was accidental. He must think I'm hiding something for sure."

Nonoko suddenly spoke up from her side of the room where she was feasting on Anna's baked goods, "What are you going to say to him then?" Seeing Nonoko's consumption rate in just a matter of few seconds, Anna shrieked, "Wahh! Don't finish all of them!" The girl was practically devouring the entire plate, for goodness' sake!

"I have to come up with an excuse, but now, I need double the excuse for suddenly 'logging off' and my goodness! This laptop. Just. Isn't. Working," Mikan grumbled and looked ready to smack her laptop down after studying it in her hands once more.

Then she heard it. A squeak. From no one else but the person donning a pink cotton candy colored hair. Mikan looked at Anna and eyed her suspiciously, trying to see through her and Anna finally caved in while backing away simultaneously. "M-Mikan..actually, um..I..yesterday, I borrowed your laptop and accidentally dropped it. I forgot to tell you and ah..oops?"

"You've gone and done it again, good job Anna. You're like a magnet for problems," came Nonoko's dry humor. She then sighed, ducked out of the way and climbed on top of her bunk bed, a routine she knew all too well.

Not a second later, the room was filled with running, chairs crashing on the floor, random objects being knocked down, Mikan shouting at Anna and Anna screaming out apologies. After playing Tom&Jerry and making a mess of their cute dormitory, the girls called truce on the condition that Anna accompany Mikan to get the computer fixed.

* * *

The walk from Alice University's Female-Only Dormitory to the electronics store situated near the school campus was short and when Mikan spotted the shop a few distance ahead of her, she ushered Anna towards that direction hurriedly.

"What's the hurry, Mikan? You dragged me out so fast that I didn't even finish baking," Anna inquired while struggling away from Mikan's constant nudging and pushing. "And speaking of those yummy treats, there's a new cafe that opened up not too far from here, let's go check it out after we drop off your laptop?"

"Ooh sounds good, but that'll have to wait for another time. I have to use the computer later so I won't have time to go to the cafe or wait for the tech guy to finish fixing my laptop. I'll just buy a motherboard and fix it myself when we get back. Super cheap," was Mikan's response, her time managing skills and frugality shining through. If only those skills of hers would activate when it came to her studies and buying junk food. She sighed to herself, self-pity washing over her for a split second before it disappeared just as fast as it came.

Anna spoke up again, "Why the rush though? Is it that urgent?"

"Well, of course! A scholarly and aspiring Computer Science student like me cannot be away from the computer for even a day! It's my soul mate for life." Mikan lied through her teeth light-heartedly but needless to say, she wanted nothing more than to get her laptop fixed so she doesn't miss the duel. At any rate, she doesn't have much time left, having wasted over an hour cleaning up the room under Nonoko's sharp watch. Mikan winced at the memory. _Never again. That girl looks like an angel but she's a devil sent straight from hell._

"Oh _puh_ -lease, Mikan!" Anna exclaimed, seeing right through her bestie. "You and 'Scholarly' doesn't mix. Girlie, you can't hide ANYthing from me, I can already guess with 140% accuracy."

Mikan giggled at that and let her know that she has agreed to a duel challenge that she cannot possibly miss, to which Anna responded with a knowing smile, "Ha! I knew it!" The two girls chatted pleasantly the rest of the walk to the store, not noticing the stares of several students passing by; the attention specifically directed towards the brunette with long, wavy hair that reached just past her waist.

-x-

* * *

You've reached the end of the 2nd chappie! I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow it as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	3. Chapter 3

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Btw, Happy Holidays to all of you! I hope 2017 has something better in store for me and for all of you as well! OH also, Mikan and her friends are near the end of their 1st year uni so they're 19 years old, whereas, Natsume and co. are 3rd year seniors and they are 21 years old. As for the rest of the characters in the story, their age will be in between 19-21 unless stated otherwise. And I'll clarify their age in the story as it progresses ^-^ I'll shut up now, here's the story you've been waiting for.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

The electronic shop was small but very clean and orderly; with shelves upon more shelves aligning the walls where items were displayed for the customers. A large cabinet stood against the far wall behind the counter where the more expensive gadgets were locked and displayed, only accessible by the store owner.

Two female students were already inside the store, looking around the merchandise. One of them had her hair up in an elegant bun with few strands framing the side of her face prettily. Her hair was a lighter shade of black, compared to the friend beside her, who has a shorter and much darker hair, the tips just touching her shoulders. Both were dressed in expensive clothing and had makeup on, what they were doing in a tiny store all dolled up, the store owner can only wonder.

The girl with the short hair rushed to one of the shelves and picked up a computer RAM and hurried back to her friend's side, "Yuri! Here, I found it. Come on, let's go pay for it."

"Wait, Wakako. Are you sure this is even going to work? I don't even know him.. Will he even help me?" The friend with the elegant bun, now known as Yuri, eyed the object and the girl holding it warily.

Wakako quickly hushed her friend, "Of course he will help you! You're the school's number one beauty, there's no way he will refuse after hearing your name. Besides, I met one of his roommates recently and that's how I came up with this genius plan. We just have to buy this RAM and get them to help us out. They're all Computer Science majors after all and this way, you can finally meet the one you like. So relax, hm?" Wakako flashed her a reassuring smile, wiggling her eyebrows slightly and Yuri loosened up her tense shoulders and returned a dazzling smile back. A smile that, no doubt, has lived up to her reputation as the school's beauty.

The two ladies headed towards the far end of the store where the owner stood behind his place at the counter just as Mikan and Anna stepped inside the shop and wandered towards the shelves beside the cash register.

"8,350 yen? So expensive?" Wakako nearly shouted. "Can you lower it for us?" The store owner merely peered at the student in front of him wearily before claiming, "Not a yen less, I won't sell for a price any lower than 8,350 yen. You can go around the other stores, it's the same price everywhere."

Mikan overheard the conversation as she lined up behind the two girls after picking out an affordable motherboard for her laptop. She couldn't help but feel disgusted at the con artist disguised as the owner of the store and decided to intervene. Coming up beside the other girls, Mikan interjected, "Hey sir, isn't your price a bit too unreasonable? Look at it," at this, Mikan took the item from Wakako, studied the object in hand and held it out to the shopkeeper, "The memory stick doesn't even have the proper sheen on it, it's obviously been used. You've got guts selling it as new and even twice as expensive on top of that. Aren't you just taking advantage of them now?"

The man looked appalled and hastily tried to shut the girl up, "What nonsense! Who are you to meddle in this, huh? What do you even know about these devices!"

Mikan almost snorted and Anna spoke up behind her, immediately defending her best friend. "We're Computer Science majors, why wouldn't we know? Your shop is right outside the school and yet, your business is so shady. What do you think will happen if word gets out about this? It's not going to look good for you."

"That's right, you're too shady!" Mikan piped up, adding more salt to the wound. The other customers in the store started gathering around the small group from the fuss, skepticism and mistrust rising rapidly, as murmurs went around about the crooked merchant. The owner, noticing this, snatched the memory stick from Mikan's hands before snapping at them, "What do you think you girls are doing here huh? You're just causing trouble now! You girls look so pretty and innocent but you're nothing but liars. Leave before I chase you out!"

Mikan turned to look at the student with the bun and warned her, "The RAM for this brand usually costs around 4,300 yen, don't be fooled by this man. You can check online for the real price and even order from there." To this, the shopkeeper once again spoke up angrily, "Of course it's cheaper online! They're fake and everyone knows that!"

Right at this moment, Wakako cautiously whispered to Yuri, "She seems to be Mikan Sakura. She came second to you at the beauty contest, don't trust her!" Yuri nodded in understanding, put her chin up and gave Mikan an overly sweet smile that can cause cavities and spoke up for the shopkeeper, "Thanks but I don't believe that the kind owner over here would lie to us like this. And it's only fair that he makes profit from his merchandise since he is running a business here." The customers surrounding them nodded at the simple explanation, accepting it, and went back to what they were doing before.

Yuri proceeded to daintily open her very expensive Gucci Marmont chain mini-bag and pulled out several bills and handed it over to the storekeeper. She then gave Mikan and Anna a smug look and said girls turned to look at one another, completely stunned and taken aback at the sly woman beside them.

* * *

"Who is she even trying to impress!?" Anna half yelled and half whispered, completely failing at being discreet. "Acting oh so gracious and thoughtful and caring and selfless and generous and polite and kind an - "

"And courteous and chivalrous," Mikan cut her off mid-sentence, "Need any more adjectives? You really need to lower your voice, Anna. Look, they're coming out of the store."

"We were just trying to help her out and she made us look like the bad guys, like..like we're stingy and awful customers!" Anna whined, shortly followed by Mikan's own whining, "We even got kicked out of there and didn't even buy that motherboard! If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn't have dragged us all the way here."

Mikan pouted, knowing that she wasted a huge chunk of time and there was only about an hour left for her before her duel. Her mind raced on where she can get hold of a computer all to herself for few hours. _Anna and Nonoko doesn't have the game and it will take too long to download and install it on their laptops. I can go to the school library and rent one out, but they're usually booked by the afternoon. So where else can I go..? Think, Mikan, think!_

Suddenly, her eyes sparkled with excitement and anticipation as an idea came to mind and she mentally gave herself a slap for not having thought of it earlier. Mikan halted when she saw that Anna has stopped dead on her tracks, a few ways behind her. She then watched her friend amusedly as Anna's eyes grew wider by the second. "I know!" She exclaimed out of the blue, "It's because she's Yuri! Yuri Akemi. And you're Mikan Sakura!"

"And you're Anna Umenomiya!" Mikan chirped, giggling at her friend's weird explanation.

"No no! I mean, it's because she's the school's beauty and you're her competition. So she's obviously trying to lower your reputation using such an underhanded method," Anna clarified before looping her arm with Mikan's. "You do know who she is right?"

"Ahh, I thought she looked familiar.." Mikan commented unenthusiastically. Of course she knows who Yuri Akemi is. Everyone in campus knows. That girl is rich, gorgeous, eloquent, smart and sociable. _No wonder everyone likes her. She's got everything going for her. I don't know about her personality though…But her clothes are really nice._ Mikan thought solemnly and looked down at her own outfit; just a simple white blouse and blue skinny jeans paired off with her New Balance sneakers. She didn't really pack a lot of clothes when she moved into the university residence because she didn't care much about it back then. Although her mother had insisted on more outfits that were a bit on the daring and revealing side and showed off her daughter's curves but Mikan had merely dismissed her. "But you need to live the uni life properly! There's going to be parties! And events! And and..Mikaaaan!" Her mother had wailed before Mikan shut her suitcase firmly and stood over it protectively. Now that she thought about it, she should've just let Yuka did what she wanted. Then again, that would be a disaster at the same time. Mikan shooed her gloomy thoughts away and shrugged nonchalantly. _I'll just borrow Anna's clothes, her style is similar to mine._

Anna was thoroughly entertained as she watched her friend's expression change constantly and she laughed lightly, "You weirdo, what are you thinking?"

Mikan snapped her head towards Anna and shot her a sheepish smile. She was about to answer when she suddenly gasped, "Anna! I almost forgot about my duel! Here, take my laptop and bring it back home safely. I have to go, bye!" Before Anna could even muster a word, Mikan shoved her laptop bag onto Anna's hands and ran towards the opposite direction of their dorm.

Anna sweatdropped and watched Mikan run and trip on her own feet. "You okay there, Mikan?" she called out, wincing at the sight of her clumsy friend.

Mikan simply picked herself up, dusted her clothes for a second and gave Anna a thumbs up before taking off once more. Anna cackled from where she stood and turned back around, making a beeline straight for their residency.

-x-

* * *

Hey, you've reached the end of my 3rd chappie! I think you guys have probably noticed by now that I'm not just focusing on the whole online aspects in Mikan's life. I'm also focusing on her uni life so bear with me if you're more into Mikan getting to know her online peers, it will come soon :)

Anyways, I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	4. Chapter 4

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

He stared down at the older man before him, eyes narrowing dangerously, challenging him to make a move that would go against his perfect, calculated strategy. His eyes gave away nothing, any emotion he felt was concealed flawlessly behind those dark, mysterious eyes, as he watched the man hover above his king for few seconds before moving past it to his knight. He smirked when his bishop was replaced by the other man's knight; everything is moving along as planned. He knew he had to sacrifice his bishop if he wanted that white horse out of the way.

"Your father told me that you plan to start your own company soon," the older man spoke up suddenly, causing the quiet in the quaint Japanese room to be disrupted. They both sat on floor cushions across from each other and a table was placed in the middle of them, putting distance between the two men. Even though the room was secluded off to the corner inside the building, closed off from the people outside, they could still hear the faint sound of keyboards being tapped upon and computer mouses being clicked on incessantly through the wooden sliding doors.

"Hn," was his only response as he took his turn in the game of chess.

* * *

Mikan headed straight towards the counter the moment she stepped inside the large place and asked the lady operating the desk for one monitor for herself. She was then given a piece of paper with a number on it in exchange for a piece of ID and after she complied, she went about searching for the computer and desk with the number written on her paper. _Ah, found you, number eighteen._

Mikan turned on the CPU and monitor screen the moment she sat down on the comfy chair and proceeded to take a good look at her surroundings while she waited. The place was packed with people and Mikan let her eyes wander about, trying to get an estimation on how many people were present in the building. Forget that she made it on time for her duel, she was lucky that she even managed to find a spot to begin with. A location like this is definitely a hot spot among the students of Alice University; the perfect place for those who needs a break from their studies and even for those who needs a place to study at. The place provided a large variety of delicious food, snacks and drinks that one can order for takeout or as a customer who plans to stay there and rent a computer for themselves. There was at least sixty computers inside, if not more and the hourly rate price to rent one is quite affordable too. _Red Inferno Cafe huh. This internet cafe is a total package. It's no wonder students like to flock here and hang out._ The internet cafe was notorious for their high speed internet and the sheer amount of gaming platforms available for avid gamers like Mikan herself.

Speaking of Mikan, she jolted out of her thoughts when she saw the monitor screen in front of her light up and she waited few more minutes for the computer to settle down before maneuvering the mouse arrow towards her favorite gaming platform- _Arc_ and clicked on it. She logged onto her account and opened up the "My Games" tab, her eyes searching around the many games before finally landing on the one she wanted. She beamed when "Gakuen Ghost Story" popped up into view and she excitedly clicked the game open and waited for it to load, wishing for the process to hurry so she can kick ass already.

Searching in her backpack, Mikan found her headphone and plugged the jack into the proper slot before sliding them above her head and onto her ears. Once the game started, she immediately logged in and sent her character moving towards the direction of the Northern Forest where she agreed to meet up with _Great-Master_. Her face lit up in anticipation when she saw her opponent present like he said he would be but then her expression fell slightly when her eyes landed on the crowd of players surrounding the area. She opened up the chat box and clicked on the _All_ tab and saw several players talking about the duel. She didn't know the pvp became a hot topic among other players in just a matter of few hours and was just a tad bit unnerved but Mikan shrugged it off nonetheless. A _ping!_ sound came and she switched the chat room to the private one to see that IceQueen had whispered to her.

 _IceQueen:_ Miki, you're here.

 _MikiOrange:_ Yeah, what's going on here? There's a lot of players…=.="

 _IceQueen:_ Just beat this idiot already, he's been bragging nonstop.

Right on cue, she received another private message, this time from Great-Master and she sent a message to IceQueen letting her know that the fight will start soon and then proceeded to check the message her competitor has sent her.

 _Great-Master:_ miki orange, I thought you would've bailed by now. Took you long enough .

 _MikiOrange:_ Huh, I don't seem to be late at all

 _MikiOrange:_ Yep, just checked my watch. I got few mins to spare :] I mean like I can totally go grab a bubble tea still

 _Great-Master:_ whatevs you're going down, know that imma win this

 _Great-Master:_ especially with _that_ character, you're doomed against mine

 _MikiOrange:_ We'll see about that.

Mikan bristled at her opponent's statement; he was basically looking down on her and her character's abilities. Just then, a request box appeared on her screen,

"Great-Master would like to request a duel with you. Do you accept it?"

Mikan clicked on the 'yes' icon to accept the challenge and went ahead and closed the message box by clicking on the 'x' icon on the top right of the box. She then exited the personal chat room only to find her opponent announcing in the _All_ chat that the duel is about to start and that they should enjoy his performance because he was going to "knock her dead." With newfound motivation, Mikan prepped herself by stretching her fingers this way and that way before cracking her knuckles and placing them on the keyboard and mouse. She closed her eyes and slowly let out a breath before opening them again, only this time, her eyes shined bright with determination. _Time to kick ass Mikan. It's showtime._

* * *

"What kind of company are you building?" The older man between the two asked after taking his turn in the board game.

"Game Development," was the curt response.

"Hm..I wasn't expecting that at all from you. But very interesting. How about I make a deal with my favourite nephew, hm?" The man spoke up, "If you win in this round, I will give you a gift."

The other man simply smirked, accepting his proposal with a mere nod, confidence and certainty practically rolling off his body, knowing that victory was already in his hands before the game even started.

* * *

 _Barbarians._ Race- Untamed. Type- Physical. They are from the tank class, that being said, their role is to pretty much take up most of the damage from the enemy while their teammates can deal damage without being attacked. Although, with their brute force and extraordinary HP, they can handle themselves very well, especially at late levels. The more a barbarian levels, the higher the defense and damage stats, the stronger he gets. And that makes them almost impossible to kill in a pvp battle.

 _And it doesn't help that_ he _is one of the top ten players in the server._ And neither does it help that she is playing a squishy character. A very squishy character, at that. But, Mikan didn't let that bother her for more than few seconds. After all, _she_ is also a top player in the server, maybe not top ten but she is still the best player among all female players. And that itself gives her credit for all her skills' worth.

With that in mind, she sent her character straight towards the barb. Simply idling far from her opponent does her no good, she needs to be in close range for she is a melee fighter. So Mikan did what her character did best; she made her game counterpart run around her opponent fast, over and over again, confusing him so that he couldn't use any of his abilities on her before hitting one of her skills key to go invisible. In that split second while she was still lost to view, Mikan made a run for the barb, pulling out her daggers before hitting him with a _Rib Strike_ , dealing massive damage. Mikan grinned as she watched the HP bar of Great-Master's go down considerably. Even with her opponent's crazy HP stat, it cannot compare to her high critical hit rates and damage. However, that grin was short-lived as it was quickly replaced with a scowl when her character was sent scraping across the dirt after being tackled by the barbarian's huge poleaxe. Mikan saw the barb closing in on her character once more when she briefly went on defense and pressed down on the _Wind Push_ skill slot, not only saving her some time but also helping her get away from her foe. The damage done on her was quite a number as her HP went down substantially but Mikan calculated that she can take on another hit or two before having to use her potions to heal herself. Steeling herself, she zeroed in on Great-Master with a _Tackling Slash_ , successfully stunning him for few seconds, before landing a _Puncture Wound_ straight to her opponent's guts, making the barb crouch down to soothe his abdomen. _A great move after stunning the opponent, nice Mikan. You get a mango bubble tea as reward for this combo._ Not wasting a millisecond, Mikan followed with a _Slipstream Strike_ , her long time best friend in the game, which almost wrecked the barb completely had he not healed himself on time.

 _Dammit! So close. You were so close Mikan._

* * *

Dark eyes met a similar pair of dark eyes. And then a smirk formed on his handsome face as he made a move for his pawn towards the end of the board, releasing the piece on the eighth rank and prompting a **pawn promotion**. He then made a move to grab his bishop that he had lost outside the board and without delay, finalized the promotion by placing the piece on the promotion square.

"Ah, I completely forgot about your pawn in that corner. I can't believe you are beating your own uncle at this!" the older man exclaimed, laughing heartily before moving the queen chess piece to guard his king.

A knock sounded on the wooden doors and it slid open momentarily as a staff member stepped inside the room with a fresh teapot. She bowed silently and settled the teapot on the table while simultaneously picking up the older, empty one. The uncle thanked her for her service and she had meant to leave but as soon as she turned around, she happened to chance a look at the younger man in the room. She was completely swept off her feet as she openly ogled at him, hearts already forming her pupils. She gasped when dark red eyes shifted to stare at hers and she found herself breathing harder, with each gulp of air being more difficult to take in. His eyes were incredulous and so was his chiseled jaw and she almost squealed out loud, ready to fangirl _hard_ , but she reluctantly came out of the trance when her boss cleared his throat loudly.

"I believe you have work to do, Tomoka." The older man spoke up, sending the red faced girl scurrying off.

After the door closed, the man whistled and reached across the table to slap his nephew's shoulder, "Quite the charmer now, aren't you. Who do you take after, hm? Definitely not your father!" At this, the man laughed out loud once more, "My brother was never the popular one. Ah, but your mother definitely was. Did you know, she basically had every student pining after her back in our college years? There's no doubt in my mind you got all that from her, especially your looks."

The young adult quirked an eyebrow at that statement and let out a deep chuckle, soon joined by his uncle's booming laughter as he mused at the old memories.

* * *

In-Game Life

She was losing mana, oh she definitely was losing a lot of mana; MikiOrange could practically _feel_ the magic in her body draining and she knew that if she didn't do anything to increase it now, she would be done for. Without magic, she couldn't possibly activate any of her skills so the only thing she could do with low health and mana is to run like a hooligan since that was the only thing that doesn't cost her any magic drainage. At least she was good at it, MikiOrange thought humorlessly, a wry smile forming on her face; her dry humor never seize to fail in appearing at the worst situations. In all honesty, she hadn't expected to use up so much of her mana but with her opponent's crazy HP stat, the fight was causing her to use several different combination skills in an attempt to quickly defeat Great-Master but doing that was draining her mana like anything. The duel rule only allows for one health and one mana potion use and she has to be smart about using them. She had tried buying herself some time in order for her mana to regenerate by itself instead of wasting the potion but that was taking too long and time was not on her side at the moment. Not with Great-Master being so overpowered and charging at her like a madman like what he is doing right now.

MikiOrange would have missed it completely had she not turn her head on time to see the oncoming attack in the first place. She jumped back, just out of Great-Master's reach but a blue light suddenly lit up Great-Master's pole-axe and before she even had the chance to land on the ground, he was already at her side and swinging his large pole-axe at her body, knocking her down mid-air.

 _Shit shit shit shit shit._ For one, she was feeling very nauseous from the sudden attack and the crowd's noisiness of "booes" and "woot woot"s wasn't helping her at all. That hit really took a toll her on her health and the weird inscriptions and scribbles that appeared on her body told her that she was stunned for few seconds from his attack. Not that she needed to see it to know that she was paralyzed from doing anything since she couldn't make her body move the way she wanted it to and neither was she able to call forth any of her magic power. Running again now would be pretty much pointless since the stun that Great-Master used on her body caused her speed to decrease by eighty percent.

MikiOrange knew the fight wasn't going to be easy but she hadn't expected it to draw out this long. Usually pvp battles ranges from a minute to few minutes long, sometimes, five minutes tops. But even that was pretty uncommon and this battle isn't stopping anytime soon because of her stubbornness and her opponent's as well. However, _soon_ is when she needs to be ending it if she wants to win. She cannot afford to lose here, not with IceQueen's _Almighty Magic Necklace_ on the line, as well as her own head. For some reason, she had a feeling that IceQueen would be having her head sent to her place on a silver platter if she lost this duel. Don't ask her why, she just had that nagging feeling.

"Hey, would you stop bein' a puss?! Don't think that your Shadow walk and running would do you any good," Great-Master all but yelled down at her face while she was still a sorry mess on the ground. "I know what you're doing so don't even try that shit on me. You're dead after this one." He warned before standing right in front of her, his pole-axe raised above his head and shining bright in preparation for the next spell, getting ready to smash down onto her body.

If this was thirty seconds ago, MikiOrange would have thought for sure that the fight would go on for another five minutes or even more. But now was not thirty seconds ago and she hid a smile, knowing that she already won this battle the moment Great-Master miscalculated how long it would take for him to charge his next spell while she was still stunned. Timing is important in pk (player kill) and he made a grave mistake by not being smart about it. MikiOrange knew that she could have easily activated her _Craze Steps_ skill with the tiny amount of mana that was left in her system and didn't have to stay stunned where she was. After all, that skill works wonders against the paralyze/stuns, as well as granting her eighty-five percent increased movement speed. But, she already had a perfect strategy planned out inside her head and she didn't want to waste any mana on unnecessary movements. Especially given that the stun on her had only a second left until she was mobile again and when it did wear off, the inscriptions and markings on her body vanished and she wasted no time pulling out her health and mana potions and gulped them down at once before carrying out the new combination skills she came up with.

The very first thing she did after she "freshened" herself up was _Shadow Escape_ away from the man's pole-axe, that thing looked sharp and very very dangerous and MikiOrange did **not** want to take on another hit from that. She needed to get away for her next attack anyway since it requires her to be in far-range. She placed a good distance between herself and her opponent and when she saw that he was close to fully charging his spell and it looked about ready to be unleashed, she pulled out one of her trusty knives from her belt sheath that was strapped onto her right thigh and with a flick of her wrist, she sent her knife flying swiftly straight to his arm. The _Knife Throw_ successfully interrupted his channeling, as well as rendering his arm powerless in the process. Great-Master flung his arm backwards, crying out in pain, his weapon long forgotten as he threw it aside from the impact of MikiOrange's hit. Just as the bright light illuminating Great-Master's pole-axe abruptly vanished, MikiOrange _Shadow Teleported_ next to her foe causing a three second stun on him while simultaneously sparking him from the energy and force of her spell. With the stun still in place and active, she sent a _Puncture Wound_ towards his abdomen, earning a loud groan from the man, and before he could straighten himself back up, MikiOrange mercilessly went for her most powerful attack and main stun skill, _Head Hunt_ , and aimed at his head as the name of the skill suggests. That skill knocked Great-Master down as he pathetically clutched his head and cursed at her while the crowd roared and cheered her on. Although he was down, she knew she wasn't nearly finished with him just yet as he still had a bit of health left in him. She was currently in the middle of one of her combos that she had tried earlier on him, only this time, she changed up the order. Calling forth her magic once more, she loaded up her next spell and went in for a _Slipstream Strike_ , dealing a great amount of damage on Great-Master, as well as her own mana bar. She then loomed over his figure and muttered out a "Good game," before landing the final blow with a _Rib Strike_ , crushing the man completely.

* * *

"Good game," he stated matter-of-factly. He watched his uncle's face contort into one of confusion and proceeded to take his queen and placed it directly across from the opposing king and called out once more, "Check mate, uncle."

The older man looked absolutely floored as his nephew easily managed to get past him in the game of chess and he looked over at the younger man dumbfoundedly and squeaked out a, "Huh?"

* * *

-IRL-

She watched her opponent go limp as his body was enveloped into a shimmery blinding white light before breaking into millions of pieces and disappeared. She smiled triumphantly and mentally did her victory dance inside her head but snapped out of it when a _ping!_ noise sounded.

 _IceQueen_ : Well done, Miki.

 _MikiOrange_ : Oh my! So she does have a kind heart :O who would have thought that the great queen would compliment a mere commoner like me!

 _MikiOrange_ : I am so honored, your majesty! :DD

 _IceQueen_ : ...

 _MikiOrange_ : hehe c:

 _IceQueen_ : Tch..so much for a compliment

 _MikiOrange_ : aww don't be like that, you know you love meee ^.^

 _IceQueen_ : ...You want to get smacked?

 _MikiOrange_ : uwahh. so violent!

 _MikiOrange_ : ah wait. hold up a sec, greatmaster just respawned

 _IceQueen_ : k

Mikan switched the chat tabs and opened up a new one with _Great-Master_ when she saw his character being revived.

 _MikiOrange_ : sooo how does it feel to be defeated by my character?

 _Great-Master_ : just peachy

 _Great-Master_ : here, take the damn ring already

A notification popped up on the side of her screen to let her know that _Great-Master_ sent her a gift and she opened it up to reveal that he had, indeed, kept true to his words and gifted her the _Almighty Magic Ring_. She then proceeded to re-gift that item to _IceQueen_ who thanked her in return.

 _Great-Master_ : Y'know..I really did underestimate you

 _Great-Master_ : and that character, mb :p

 _Ha. Don't underestimate an assassin._ Mikan thought smugly, pride swelling in her chest. A lot of players tend to go with tanks or ranged characters because they can hold themselves off in the beginning, whereas, with assassins, they are rather fragile, especially in the lower levels. Although, their HP stat is quite low, perhaps the lowest among all the other characters available in the game, one shouldn't underrate them just because of their squishiness. Assassins are quite the elite class from their tideborn race, they have the potential to overpower and destroy any and every class when used effectively and correctly. Overtaking other classes is possible when one takes advantage of the assassin's main ability- stealth. That and also the fact that they are highly capable of crippling and slaughtering their opponents due to their covert skills and high critical hit rates when the character is built with dexterity in mind, which is exactly what Mikan did. With all that and the amount of time she spent honing her skills, Mikan landed herself a squishy, yet deadly, assassin and she is damn proud of it.

 _MikiOrange_ : aha dw about it

 _Great-Master_ : the rest of the assassin players are still pretty shit tho, it's hard to be a strong player with this kind of character but kudos to you

 _MikiOrange_ : heh, thanks :]

 _Great-Master_ : Wanna go at it again?

 _MikiOrange_ : Sure but I can't take too long still. Gotta head back soon

 _Great-Master_ : ye, that's cool

After an hour passed by, Mikan bid her online friends farewell and closed all the gaming applications before shutting down the computer. She headed back to the counter and gave the paper with her number on it back to the lady and she was charged for the hour and half time that she stayed there, which added up to $6. She traded off the money for her ID card back and she had meant to head to the snack bar but the lady spoke up, "Ma'am, would you like to buy a TIME package for the work station?"

"Ah..uhm, what are the deals?" Mikan asked distractedly, eyeing the snack bar just few ways beside the counter.

"We have two packages here with us- $30 for 10 hours and $60 for 25 hours. You would be saving a lot of money with the TIME card than if you were to come in here as a walk-in."

The offer was tempting and Mikan weighed her options in her head; on one hand, her laptop is down and she definitely needed a temporary one and this would fix her situation. On the other hand, she can use the money to buy herself some food and the very yummy looking bubble tea just beside her. Alas, the evil temptation for food overtook any rationality and Mikan politely declined the offer and left the counter only to head straight to the food section of the building. She never did put up much of a fight against any food's seduction. After ordering her daily dose of large sized Mango Diamond Chiller with tapioca and honey pudding, Mikan left the place heartbroken from her much emptier purse, the only consolation being the drink in her hand.

Just as Mikan stepped foot outside, two men of similar heights but contrasting features emerged from the room secluded off to the side of the building. Where one had jet black messy hair and striking red eyes, the other had a mop of dirty brown hair and kind, dark olive colored eyes. Heads turned to stare at them and the two simply brushed it off, almost as if they're used to the attention always given to them.

"Heh, uncle. You don't seem to be too terrible looking yourself, I see you have your fair share of fan girls."

The older man slapped his niece's back hard in return and laughed, "Well what can I say, Natsume? I'm a Hyuuga afterall. Aside from that, I can't believe you defeated me again! But I'm a man of my word! What do you think of this building? This is the very first establishment I've ever built and the internet cafe has done more than enough for me in the past many years. And this will be my gift to you! I hope it does you some good like it has for me. Take this place and renovate it, it should be suitable for your startup period."

Natsume gave the space in front and around him a quick glance before blandly stating, "Thanks but I'll have to decline the gift." The place is indeed very spacious which he can make use of when he starts his own company but after a brief look at his uncle's face, he decided he didn't want to take this precious place away from him. Plus, it was also an internet cafe that a lot of his fellow schoolmates and his own friends enjoyed coming to.

"What! But this is perfect for you! You can build your company with this huge space and this way, you won't have to lease another property and go through all that paperwork and money loss. You don't have to worry about me losing one of my businesses, I have several others."

Natsume rolled his eyes slightly at his uncle's attempt to convince him, "You must be mistaking me for someone who cares, uncle. This location is terrible, I don't want it."

Mr. Hyuuga clutched at his chest and stared teary eyed at his nephew, "Ouch. That hurts Natsume, you're mean!"

Natsume couldn't resist another eye roll at his uncle's childishness and offered, "How about we head back to my place for dinner? I'm sure dad and mom would love to see you." With that said, his uncle's face lightened up and the both of them headed out through the backside of the internet cafe where their cars were parked.

-x-

* * *

Dun dun duunn! You've hit the end of chapter 4 and I hope this was satisfying for all of you reading out there. I put in three things for y'all- One: NATSUME'S APPEARANCE! I know you guys have been secretly waiting for his presence but I know I know, I didn't make the couple see each other or anything, don't hate me gahhh! Two: The duel that you've been waiting for! And last but not least, three! A much longer chapter! This chapter hit 5000+ words (ten pages) which is three times as long compared to the previous ones. Since it was my birthday yesterday (Feb 20th), I wrote this lengthy chappie as a gift to my readers and also as an apology for not updating in so long ;-;

Plus, for those of you who watched the drama, this chapter is so different from the actual series as I've completely strayed off the main plot of the story and also heavily focused on the gaming itself. And I will continue this path from now on but will continue to write similar background stories inspired from the drama.

Anyways, I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	5. Chapter 5

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Storms. They are the worst kinds of short, intense weather to many; heavy rain, thunder, lightning, and strong gust of winds all combine to interrupt their carefully polished and unruffled lives. To them, it is an unwelcomed guest that causes havoc and breaks the tranquility of the usually serene campus and destroys laundries hung outside. However, to Mikan, it is addictive. _Thrilling_. And very very dangerous. It is one of the few joys in the world where she allowed herself to hang loose and just be free. She never did find someone to share the joy and happiness she felt from being outside in the storm. She had tried, but failed miserably, to get Anna and Nonoko to spend time with her out in the storm before and they had just stared at her like she grew another head when she asked them. Although she had no one to enjoy the bizarre weather with, that never did stop her from running outside and reveling in the outburst and fury of the storm whenever it did appear. So imagine her surprise when Mikan was greeted with a slow drizzle of rain when she exited the internet cafe, which quickly expanded to a full, blown-out downpour with wind whipping at her face and hair and beating down on her clothes. It was like a burst of energy that split in the air and surged through her, syncing with her mind and body. The feeling was incredible. It was exhilarating.

Mikan didn't bother hiding away and taking shelter like what many others around her are doing. Rather, she faced the sky, disregarding her appearance and sagging clothes, and took a moment to enjoy the rain, wind and thunder. She smiled at the irony of it all. A disruptive and loud weather like this gave her a peace of mind and placidity when to many others like her roommates, it is nothing but violent and uproarious.

Mikan noticed some people staring at her and although she knew she probably looked weird to others standing in the middle of the storm, she didn't quite understand why several people, especially the male students and random men passersby, kept giving her _very_ long glances. She made eye contact with one of the men taking shelter when he suddenly whistled at her, knowing he snagged her attention, and yelled out, "Ey, mama, you lookin' mighty fine. You like them lacy eh?" Mikan was used to the catcalling as it was something that she got almost everywhere but the man's last statement left her confused for a moment until she looked down at her clothes and saw that her white blouse became see through from soaking up so much water. All too suddenly, the bubble of peace she created around herself popped and Mikan felt the hairs on her body stand on end. She looked around and saw that almost every person near her was looking at her now-revealed top. She never felt more cold and exposed and she wrapped her arms around her torso while making a run towards the resident buildings. The whole way, she reprimanded herself for being so careless and oblivious of her surroundings and her own body. _How could I forget I was wearing white?!_ Mikan screeched in her head, humiliation and shame crawling up her damp skin.

* * *

"Anna, will you _please_ go outside and grab my sheets for me!" Nonoko pleaded for the umpteenth time, while spreading her homemade cucumber mask on her face inside the bathroom.

Anna ignored the plea as she continued to focus on the goodies baking in her mini oven. After another shout from Nonoko, Anna distractedly yelled back, "I'm busy!"

"But I can't go! I have a mask on my face and it's raining like crazy outside." Nonoko once again pleaded with urgency straining her voice. She left the bathroom few seconds later only to see the pink haired girl still inside the dorm and Nonoko ran over to her, nudging her towards the door, desperate to get her roommate to run downstairs to get her laundry for her, "Anna please!"

Anna gave an exasperated look at her friend, "I will do no more running today! I was all over the place today because of you and Mikan and I haven't finished baking yet! Plus, I have to bake again because all my food was gone when I came back. Whose fault is that, huh!"

Although Anna was giving her death glares and a pointed accusatory finger, Nonoko couldn't care more to be fazed by it and continued to pester her best friend.

"You could've gone and grabbed your sheets by now if you just went instead of telling me what to do!" came the protest from the baker.

Both girls got into a banter when a knock on the door interrupted their bickering. "Dammit Anna!" Nonoko exclaimed, "Can you at least get that?"

"Nope," The other girl challenged, "You go get it, you're closer! I'm a very busy person, you know?"

Nonoko let out a frustrated growl but nonetheless still went to open the door, despite donning on a crumbly, green mask. "Oh my!" She yelped out loud as she came face to face with a bunch of soppy sheets and a terrible looking Mikan the moment she opened the door. "Mikan, what happened to you! You look awful."

"Cause that's what every girl loves to hear," came Mikan's dry retort, a tiny wry smile forming on her face. Nonoko quickly ushered Mikan in and took the laundry from her hands and dumped them in her laundry basket while calling out, "You want me to lie to you instead?"

Anna had grabbed a towel quickly from her closet the moment she saw the state Mikan was in and hurried to her side. "Nonoko's right, we're your best friends and as your loyal best friends, we've sworn to always be honest and never lie to each other," was Anna's logic and reasoning, "So really, what happened? You look like you've been hit by a truck on your way here. And..oh my, Mikan! Were you crying? Your eyes are red and puffy."

Mikan just hung her head low and stayed silent while she let Anna help her out of her blouse and drape the towel on her shoulders. Nonoko came to her side with a spare pajama set and placed them in Mikan's hands before pushing her inside the bathroom to change. Both girls got a good look at their drenched roommate and decided to stay quiet until said girl was dry and ready to talk.

After taking a hot shower and changing into the fluffy and soft pajamas, Mikan instantly felt a lot better; she practically felt the negative energy that surrounded her before roll off her body with the water and go down the drain as she took her shower. She knew she may have overreacted a bit but she couldn't help but feel embarrassed at what transpired. As soon as she came out the bathroom, she was met with intense stares from her two friends and she couldn't help but smile sheepishly. "Ah..did I worry you two?"

"Did you _worry_ us? Worry? Were we WORRIED at all for you? Psh, no!" Nonoko suddenly got in Mikan's face, "Of course we were, Mikan! And you took forever in the shower!" She lead the brunette towards the dining area and sat her down onto one of the chairs. Nokoko and Anna both pulled up the other chairs beside Mikan and sat down on it themselves and waited for the girl's explanation.

"It was nothing really. I got caught in the storm and grabbed the sheets for you. Ah, sorry by the way, I didn't get them on time."

Nonoko snapped her head towards Anna and waggled a finger in her face, "It's this girl's fault!"

Said girl simply gave Nonoko's finger a short, tight lipped kiss while it was still in front her and the blue haired girl yanked her hand back before shooting a look of disgust towards Anna. "I told you I was busy and Mikan deary, don't think you can fool us. Your face was tear-streaked when you came in, I highly doubt you were crying because you didn't get the sheets on time."

They were both prepared and patient to hear what Mikan had to say but what they were not ready for was the girl's sudden outburst,

"I'M AN EXHIBITIONIST!"

Mikan placed her head in her hands and continued to wail dramatically and her roommates couldn't help but sputter and choke on their spit, trying to comprehend their friend's unexpected confession.

Anna didn't know how to approach the topic and only managed to open her mouth and close it and then open it again, looking like a gaping fish. The first to recover was Nonoko, "A-ah Mikan, everyone has their hobbies, I s-suppose, and yours happened to be, you know and we love you no matter-"

"No no, it's not like that!" Mikan cut her off, "I was outside in the storm as always and I see all these people staring at me and I didn't know why until this creepy guy calls me out and tells me that "I like em lacy" and then I look at my clothes and realized HE WAS TALKING ABOUT MY BRA. EVERYONE SAW MY LACY BRA. NOW I CAN"T GET MARRIED!"

"At least it was sexy!" Anna piped up, earning a smack in the head from Nonoko. "Dammit Nonoko! That hurts and it's true! They were probably jealous because Mikan has big boobies."

"Well, wouldn't Mikan just love that. I'm sure those men would like to get breast implants and match it to Mikan's," came Nonoko's infamous sarcasm. "But in all seriousness, do you need us to go beat this guy senseless, Mikan? We can go hunt him down. And the rest of them too. They're all dead for seeing your bouncy knockers!"

Mikan giggled at her best friends' words, "Yeah, the green-faced heroine, bride of the Hulk, to the rescue!"

"Wha!" Nonoko sputtered and stood up, "What do you mean? Do you want me to help you or not!" Anna and Mikan cracked up when they saw the crumbly mask on their friend's face flake off piece by piece from the sudden movement. And Nonoko still hasn't a clue of what happened and stared at them like the crazy lunatics that they are until Mikan grabbed a hand mirror from her bedside and shoved it to her face. Noticing her reflection, Nonoko yelped and ran off to the bathroom, followed by several curse words.

"Wait!" Anna cried in between laughs, "You left parts of your green face on the floor Nonoko! How can you go on rescue missions when your main appearance is lacking!"

"Your husband won't be able to recognize you!" Mikan snickered boisterously, joining in on the fun.

"Ha. Ha. You two are sooo funny," came Nonoko's snappy answer, "Should really go become comedians at this rate. And I see that you're feeling much better now Mikan from what I can tell of your manly laugh!"

Mikan wiped the tears from her face, slowly recovering from the extreme laughter, but she doubled over with Anna once more when the scene replayed in her head. She managed to wheeze out a, "Yea!" before clutching her stomach from the pain of laughing hysterically. Her best friends really did know how to cheer her up and she was ever so grateful and lucky to end up meeting the two girls when they all first met each other in the beginning of the first semester. She thanked the heavens above and whoever it was in the administration office to have put them all together to share the dorm room. Ever since then, her university life has always been fun, happy, and exciting with her favourite people and she would never have it any other way.

-x-

* * *

You've reached the end of this chapter and it will be continued in chapter 6 :)

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update.


	6. Chapter 6

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

"Ah! Speaking of heroines, heroine Mikan and I went on a rescue mission today and decided to help our poor, foolish schoolmates and guess who it was!" Anna said eagerly as she went inside the bathroom where Nonoko was at and continued on without waiting for her response. "We ran into the school beauty herself! Yuri and her sidekick, Wakako. Gah, they were so rude. You know what Yuri said when we tried to help her from being scammed?!"

"What exactly happened first?" Nonoko questioned while heading back to the dining area after cleaning up her face, followed zealously by Anna.

"This Yuri girl, oh my goodness. I don't even know what to say. She was buying a used RAM from the electronic shop and the owner was tricking her; he was selling the used item for the original price so Mikan and I tried to reason with the shop owner but he yelled at us. And this girl, this Miss-top-number-one-beauty-Yuri-girl brushed us off completely! This is what she said," Anna then poised herself, ready to act out exactly how Yuri interacted with them before and dramatically recalled, " 'Thanks but I don't believe that the kind owner over here would lie to us like this. And it's only fair that he makes profit from his merchandise since he is running a business here'," Anna ended with several exaggerated hand gestures.

"Can you believe that! Who does she think she is? She was acting like she was more thoughtful and understanding and made us look so bad." Anna ranted, "If I knew this was going to happen, I would've stopped Mikan and myself from helping her. Tch, how ungrateful and now she only wasted her own money. For someone known for being highly educated, she sure is dumb."

Mikan giggled alongside Nonoko at Anna's overenthusiastic tirade and said, "Ah..well, it's alright now. What's done is done."

"Oh! But why is Yuri acting high and mighty towards you two?" Nonoko wondered, "Did you two do something to her before?"

"It's obviously to put Mikan's reputation down!" Anna reasoned loudly, "Remember last year's beauty contest? She came first, followed by Mikan so she probably still sees Mikan as competition."

Nonoko nodded slightly and added her own statement, "Wasn't it rigged though? Everyone thinks that the picture posted by Yuri was photo shopped. She was all dressed up fancily and looked like the photo was taken by a professional photographer."

"Mhm! Mikan should've won that. It's too bad Mikan's picture was so terrible, it was slightly blurry too. Why would anyone post a picture like that, some terrible photographer they are," Anna piped up.

Mikan rolled her eyes at Anna and suddenly got into said girl's face, "It was you, wasn't it! You're the one who took the picture and posted it online for me. I never wanted to be on the list and see what happened? I keep getting compared to Yuri now because of the contest."

"Wah! You already went through my phone and laptop and there was no proof of me doing it," Anna defended herself as she made a cross with her arms and held it out towards Mikan, "If it was me, I'd take a full frontal picture of when you're changing! You would've definitely gotten first place then!"

"Anna!" Mikan smacked her friend in the shoulder and pinched her shortly after for the scandalous reveal, followed by several shouts of pain from Anna.

"Hmm, what Anna is saying is true though." Nonoko spoke up, "If only your picture wasn't tampered, you would've totally won. And plus, Yuri in person doesn't match up to the picture posted on the forum. Not saying that she isn't pretty in real life but her picture looked like the pictures in the magazines."

Mikan gave it some thought and stated, "But in the end, shouldn't I be the one being hostile towards her? I came second to her after all.. In a theoretical sense, she shouldn't be the one acting so petty and unpleasant."

"Who knows? She's probably worried that you might steal her spot this year," Anna reasoned once more, "Or maybe...she's just jealous of your boobies." Anna said, coming eye to eye with Mikan's chest, "It could be a flat chest jealousy, you know."

Nonoko stifled a laugh at Mikan's contorted face and yanked Anna back before she falls prey to another hit from the brunette, "Geez, Anna. I now know why you can never get a boyfriend."

Anna suddenly perked up and anxiously asked, "What, why? I really want a boyfriend, please oh please tell me why! Am I doing something bad? I'll change!"

Nonoko sniggered and poked the girl's forehead lightly, "It seems that you're much more concerned with girls, what with you being so infatuated with boobs and all. Probably why the guys are staying away from you."

Anna gaped at Nonoko's words and stuttered, "W-wha… Mikan, don't you dare laugh!"

Unable to contain herself, Mikan burst out loud in laughter, clamping her mouth with both hands suddenly to prevent the sound from coming out. Her body shook visibly, giving her away and she promptly ran away, attempting to reach for the bathroom as Anna started chasing her and Nonoko around.

* * *

"Kaka...I feel foolish for acting like that to that girl."

The guilty statement was met with a silent response from the other person. "Wakako, are you listening to me? Wakako!"

At once, the short-haired girl snapped her head up and smiled sheepishly, "Ah, sorry sorry. I was focusing on writing my paper. What did you say, Yuri?"

"That girl who helped me bargain at the electronics shop...she's Mikan Sakura right?" Yuri questioned.

"Mhm, that's her. Miss Second Place! Remember she was also in that same beauty contest as you? She lost to you. Heh, she's so lame."

One of the corners of Yuri's lips turned up ever so slightly at her friend's backtalk, "She's quite pretty though, she could have even won first place," she commented nonchalantly, as if fishing for another crude remark.

"Ugh no, not even. Don't get me started here, Yuri. You are so much prettier than her. Why do you think she lost to you? If you two were to be models at Victoria's Secret, you'd be one of the angels and she'd be nothing." Completely caught up at her friend's comment, Wakako ranted off, hook, line and sinker. "Scratch that, I don't think she'll even get hired as a model for any low companies. She's nothing but a Plain Jane. Even if you two were to get hired as actors, I'd say you would be the main lead and she probably won't even get to be in front of the camera. Maybe if she's lucky, she can be one of those background people."

Yuri bit her lip to stop herself from smiling but after having her ego rubbed and boosted, she couldn't contain herself and unconsciously allowed her lips to quirk up into a wide smirk. Catching herself, she quickly wiped the smile off her face and turned around to look at her friend. "Don't say that, Kaka. That's not very nice." Yuri said, giving her friend a stern look.

"Fine, fine," Wakako responded as she continued to type away at her laptop, "Can't a girl simply speak the truth?"

Yuri giggled, "Whatever you say."

The study station that they were at became silent for few moments as the number one beauty went deep into her thoughts and her friend beside her was focused heavily on her essay papers.

"Mikan huh..she's quite friendly. Her friend too. They actually tried to help me out there today. She's not like what I imagined her to be." Yuri voiced out loud, breaking the silence between them.

"Oh Yuri, what do I do with you? You're too innocent. Don't be fooled by her words!" Wakako exclaimed, narrowing her eyes in an accusatory glare at no one in particular, "That Mikan girl..she's just trying to show off to everyone how smart she is. She lost to you, don't forget that. So she would obviously want to bring her reputation up by putting you down instead."

Pushing her ego aside, Yuri reasoned, "She seemed genuine though..that's probably not the case, right?"

Wakako huffed to the side in slight annoyance and gave the girl beside her a look that said she knew something that the other didn't. "Listen, Yuri. Just because you have someone you like in the Computer Science department doesn't mean everyone else there are nice too."

"Kaka! Lower your voice," Yuri quickly hushed her friend and looked around the study room to make sure no one heard what was just said. Realizing they were alone in the room, she turned back to her friend.

"You worry too much Yuri. Even if someone heard, I don't think anyone would have any problem pairing you and him together. You two are such beautiful people, definitely meant for one another." Wakako stated, knowing that saying the right things would make the other girl happy and at ease. "Besides, don't you think it's weird how only few girls are in that program? There are hardly any girls there, they obviously want to try to get the guys' attention. I'm sure that's what Mikan and her friends are there for. How shameless!"

Yuri smiled unconvincingly, uncertainty and doubt practically visible in her eyes. Noticing this, Wakako leaned in and whispered, "If you don't believe me, you can ask Daisuke Chujiro."

Rightfully confused, Yuri asked, "Who?"

"Daisuke from our linguistics program. Remember? He's quite popular at school. Anyway, the other day after class ended, I saw Mikan Sakura coming out of a limousine. I couldn't really see the person who was inside the car with her but they had short hair. It seemed like a man but anyways, I was too slow to take a picture but I know Daisuke did. I think it's a personal car to be honest, it didn't look like one of those obnoxiously long limos. Surely, it must cost couple million yen for a sleek limo like that, that's how rich the guy is."

"You're kidding, right? There is no way…" Yuri trailed off, completely stunned at the news.

"Why would I lie about this." Wakako interjected matter-of-factly. "She's shameless. She must be an escort of some sort, taking money from rich men for just a little bit of her time. Tch. How detestable."

Yuri stayed silent for few seconds, throwing the idea back and forth in her head before reasoning once more, "How are you so sure about this? How come I didn't hear of it…?"

News this huge would have already blown up all over the school forum and everyone would've gossiped about it for days. It was impossible for any student or staff member of Alice University to do any sort of escort work or a related field of work without getting caught. Any person who is caught will be punished immediately; not only are they expelled and disallowed to step foot on the perimeter of the school, they will forever have a tarnished record wherever they go. Working in such industries are a big no-no due to the school's security system of protecting their reputation and their students' health and safety. And the school has made that a strict policy and has been implementing the rule for a long time. _Plus_ , Yuri thought, _no one would be stupid enough to work as an escort and be seen and caught at the school_.

Just then, as if they were both dealt a good hand, few students walked into the study room and sat at the station across the room from them. One of them being,

"Daisuke!" Wakako called out loudly, heading straight towards the table where the student donning a dark ginger, slightly curly hair with a plaid button up shirt and straight-fitted jeans, paired off with converse chuck sneakers was sitting at. Said boy shot his head up at the source of the voice and immediately went back to setting up his work station without responding back to the girl.

"Hey Daisuke, I'm talking to you! How can you ignore a pretty girl like me."

"Ha. Aren't you egotistical," the male student muttered under his breath before turning his seat around to give the girl in front of him his full attention. "What do you want?"

Wakako grinned slyly and placed a hand on his shoulder, "..Wanna show Yuri and I the picture you took of Sakura coming out of the limousine?" Attempting to allure the guy to spill the secret, she bit her lip in a manner meant to be sexy and traced few circles on his shoulder.

Unfazed, Daisuke simply brushed her hand off of him and snapped, "How do you know about that."

"I was behind you the whole time," Wakako explained. Not dismayed whatsoever at the man pushing her away, she resumed to touch his shoulder, "You know, you're quite smart, aren't you? I was too slow to even think of taking a picture so fast. You're not only smart and handsome, but you're quick as well. What a combo, I like that.."

"I've deleted it," Daisuke lied without hesitation before pushing her hand off once more and turning back around to face his friends and his work station. At the time when he took the picture, he was looking for something to write about as he is part of the journalism club and had mistakenly snapped a picture of the girl getting out of the luxury ride when his intention was to take pictures of the surrounding area. And although the picture made him judge the second placed beauty negatively, he realized it could be harmful material to the woman if it ever got out and decided to not report it in and kept it to himself. He didn't know that someone else also witnessed it and that someone happened to be the loud-mouthed girl in front of him.

Completely offended from being rejected twice, Wakako pointed an accusatory finger at him, "Ha! Look at you! I bet you have a crush on Mikan."

"As if I would like a girl like her," he retorted irritatedly.

"So why are you trying to protect her? Do you like her? That's just it, isn't it? You're protecting her reputation. That's why you don't want to share the picture with me." The girl persisted, taking any chance to get him to crack.

Daisuke was ready to turn around and tell the intrusive girl off when one of his friends suddenly stood up, "A-ah.. U-usami-san..I don't know what's go-going on but we are here to s-study. I-if you don't mind, we wo-would like to be left to study i-in peace." The poor boy stuttered so badly that said girl merely laughed at his face.

"What's with you? Do you have speech-impairment disability?" The short-haired girl sneered.

The boy flushed a bright tomato shade when Daisuke stood up as well and turned to face the girl directly, "Look, girlie. I don't know what you're trying to do with the picture but I'm going to warn you, better forget about it now. And never speak to my friend like that, leave before I lose my temper. I'm not a forgiving person."

Feeling unnerved, Wakako quickly fled the scene, knowing when she has crossed the line and when she's not needed anymore.

Daisuke sighed and sat back down only to face his friend with a slight grin, "You did good there, Yuu. Didn't think you would speak up."

Tobita Yuu merely pushed his round glasses up on his nose and flushed even more before settling himself down. Confrontation was never his forte and he would get profusely nervous and sweaty when he came across one but nevertheless, they had exams to study for and the girl was disturbing them. Plus, she was pestering his friend and he looked like he would say something he'd regret so Yuu knew he had to settle things down. He wiped his clammy hands on his grey vest unconsciously and immediately regretted it. His clothes aren't cheap and regular, after all, he dresses in geek-chic style. The clothes he chose for the day was a semi-formal button up blue shirt paired with a closed grey vest and jeans with few tears in them and with his excessive perspiration, he was sure he had ruined his vest.

"Was it bad that I interrupted?" Yuu asked meekly, trying to cool off his red face.

Daisuke simply laughed and patted his friend's shoulder, "No no, you were awesome there, thanks. She would've never left if it wasn't for you. Lord knows how much I wanted to push her off for touching me so much." He shivered as the image popped back up into his head.

Yuu felt his face light up once more at the compliment and even though he knew he didn't do much, he still responded back with a, "You're welcome."

Across the room, Yuri watched in slight entertainment and shock at the scene that transpired in front of her. She continued to watch as her friend sat down beside her in a huff,

"How dare he embarrass me like that! I feel so humiliated!" Wakako said through her teeth, anger laced in her voice. "I swear, I will make him pay for that. That Sakura girl too! It's all her fault. When I find the picture, I will make sure to post it online for everyone to see. Damn him! And her!"

Yuri was taken aback at her best friend's sudden declaration and anger towards _her_ competitor from the beauty contest. She knew her friend was playing a dangerous game here. Whatever she plans on doing can really get Mikan Sakura expelled from school and possibly ruining her chance at having a career at all. _But if what Daisuke had said was true about deleting the picture, then that means it is true about her getting out of a luxury car. The school officials have a right to know about this but..._

"Kaka, let's not make any rash decision here, okay?"

"Yuri, what are you talking about? Didn't you already hear what that asshole said? It's true this happened and it is ruining our school's reputation!" Wakako pressed on, "We can't possibly have someone like her in our school and even taking part in a school competition and gaining love and attention from the student body. What does that make you then? Both of you participated in the school contest and while you're pure and innocent, she's nothing but a skank who snaked her way up into the polls. How's that fair to the rest of the girls who was in the contest as well? There's another beauty contest coming up this year, just think about it. You're really fine with a slut like that being your competitor?"

Yuri furrowed her brows and replayed Wakako's words in her head. What her friend said did make sense to her but she still wasn't sure if exploiting her would be the right thing to do. Although the brunette student was her competitor, she was hesitant to take anything too far, especially one as damaging as this.

"Yuri, don't be so fooled by appearances. Just because she was nice to you today doesn't mean that's who she really is. Don't be naive, alright?" Wakako asserted for the final time, leaving her words to toy with her friend's pretty head.

-x-

* * *

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	7. Chapter 7

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

Anna, unsurprisingly, easily fell prey to exhaustion after chasing her friends around the dorm for few minutes. With her low stamina, she couldn't hold off much longer and landed on her bed in a big huff.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Mikan teased, "Aw, look Nonoko. Poor Anna can't seem to function anymore."

Her playfulness was met with the worn out girl throwing a pillow smack at Mikan's face, who eagerly threw it back only to miss the pink-haired girl and landing it on the blue-haired girl instead. With this, Mikan unintentionally but successfully started a full blown pillow fight with her roommates.

After few rounds of play fight, Nonoko called truce, "Okay okay, I give! I feel like my heart is going to burst anytime soon."

"Ugh, same. Mikan, this is too unfair for us, we're not fit like you!" Anna whined. To which, Nonoko added, "And Mikan, you're way too good at this! Using your dodgeball skills on us is prohibited."

"I hardly used any strength on you guys," Mikan snickered, "You two are just weak."

"It's too bad we don't have a dodgeball club here, you'd be a pro for real," Anna sighed.

As if a lightbulb appeared on top of Nonoko's head, she suddenly sat up from her spot on the ground and excitedly suggested, "I know! Why don't we start a dodgeball club?"

Nodding in agreement, Anna's eyes twinkled at the newfound idea, "Oh yeah! We could totally do that, our club would _so_ rock! And we can have Mikan coach everyone's ass."

"What?" said girl's eyes bugged out, "Noo no no no no no no no! Don't drag me in this, you and Nonoko can do it by yourself. I'm not participating."

"But you're so good at it! Why waste your talent," Anna whined once more.

"That was in elementary and highschool though. I'm not as fast as I used to be and plus, we're in university now. We don't have time for things like that," Mikan reasoned, "We should use our time wisely and spend them on studying. We're going to be way too busy when exams rolls around to be focusing on clubs and such. Am I right?"

Not buying her logic, Nonoko snorted loudly, "Yeah right, girlie! Who are you trying to fool? Making up all these excuses to cover up the fact that you'd much rather play your games than start up a club. 'Studying' my butt! I didn't see you touch your books even once in the past two weeks and exams are only a month away."

Caught red handed, Mikan held her hands up in the air to pretend surrender, "Alright, you got me there. What can I do? I love my games too much."

"You are such an addict, Mikan." Came the response, "I will arrest you for an unhealthy addiction."

"An addict huh? That, I am," Mikan admitted with pride and dignity.

"Ew, who says that with such confidence," Anna called out, "You sound like you're addicted to drugs."

"Wha-"

Before Mikan could even finish one word, Anna interrupted with, "Oh right! I forgot to tell you, I brought your laptop back home safely~" she announced in a sing-song manner. She then reached over to her desk where the laptop sat and handed it over to her brunette friend.

"Oo Em Gee! Thank you, thank you!" Mikan squealed, "Oh I've missed my baby so much. Aw, poor Cordalina. Did you miss me? It's so good to be back home in mama's arms, ain't it? I'll never leave you again!" Mikan couldn't help but coo at her laptop and hold it close to her heart. Now absorbed in her own little world, her two roommates merely stared at her like she grew another head and mused over her dramatic reaction.

"What are you going to do about your laptop though? It's still broken." Anna asked.

Nonoko quirked her eyebrows up in confusion at Anna's statement and questioned, "What are you talking about? Didn't you two went to buy the motherboard?"

"Remember? We got kicked out of the store and didn't get a chance to get one," Mikan explained, "No worries though. I'll just order the parts online and build them on my own. It's much cheaper this way."

"Parts? You're going to take apart the laptop and do it on your own?" Anna's eyes bulged out.

"Mhm, capacitors are cheap. I'm just going to replace it and see what happens, some parts are probably damaged when the laptop blew. Hopefully, I don't need to perform a more in depth repair."

Nonoko merely shook her head, "Capacitors, huh? Even though I am in the same program as you, sometimes I feel like I'm in a completely different program."

"Yeah, yeah!" Anna agreed, nodding her head rapidly, "I don't even remember learning that in any of our courses yet. Aren't you going to shock yourself?"

"If the circuit is still alive, then probably. But if the circuit on which the capacitors that I'm replacing are fully dead or completely discharged before I start repairing it, then I'll be fine." Mikan explained knowledgeably.

"How can you tell the bad from good though?" The pink haired girl questioned once more.

"If they have goo oozing from the top... I think," Nonoko answered, unsure of how to identify a damaged capacitor and turned to look at Mikan for confirmation.

"No, you're right girlie, it can be black, brown or white goo leaking from the top. Or you can also look for capacitors that are bulging slightly at the top or the bottom. Like it would look somewhat as if they are pushing themselves away from the board."

Anna couldn't help but snicker in a playful manner, "Geez, the brains of a nerd."

"It's a wonder how you know so much about breaking down a computer when all you do is play games," Nonoko teased.

"Hehe," Mikan smiled widely, "I am passionate about games, of course. But I hope that one day I can work for Anju Pheromone Corporation from all the experience and love I have for gaming. So yeah, I'll need to know the ins and outs of a computer and also game designing as well."

"Uh, Anju fera what?" Anna asked, confused at the name Mikan mentioned.

Mikan cackled at her friend's blank expression, "Ah, let me make that clear for you. Narumi Anju is the man who owns Anju Pheromone Corporation, he's the mastermind behind Gakuen Ghost Story. So I hope that one day, I can work for him and that's why I'm in this program so that I can help create and produce games for him in the future." Mikan knows that her chances of working at Anju Pheromone Corporation, the number one company in the gaming industry, is slim to none but she thought that setting her goals high wouldn't harm anyone but rather, give her a higher sense of motivation to reach her dreams of creating games. And that's why she's constantly researching the gameplays and designs of the company's top game, Gakuen Ghost Story, by investing majority of her time playing it. _Don't make excuses, Mikan! You know you're just obsessed with games, that's why you're playing it. Research purposes, my cute butt!_ Mikan mentally schooled herself for coming up with such excuses but the other half of herself couldn't help but argue back with- _Shut up Mikan! You know it's partially true still._

"Okay, okay! Stop it, you two! I play games because of both reasons okay! They're both valid!" Mikan suddenly burst out loud unconsciously.

"Wha?" Anna quirked her head to the side, "We didn't say anything yet though, Mikan."

"Ah!" Mikan came to a start and slapped a hand to her mouth, realizing a moment too late that she spoke her thoughts out loud. "N-no, I didn't mean it like that. I was-"

"Haha!" Nonoko laughed and patted Mikan's head reassuringly, "Don't worry, Mikan! We're used to this by now. You occasionally talk to yourself out loud."

"And sometimes, argue with yourself too," Anna added.

Embarrassed of herself, Mikan hid her red face in her hands and whimpered sheepishly.

"Oh! Oh! Guess what I saw on my way back?!" Anna shrieked out loud, having suddenly remembered what she came upon during her day. Without waiting for a response back, she went ahead and recalled, "There was a poster on the school board and wo ho hooo~ There's a soccer match between the Computer Science students and the Linguistics students!"

Mikan looked up from her hands and widened her eyes at her friend's announcement, "Wait, what?"

"OMG, this is big news!" Nonoko stood up and dragged Anna with her and proceeded to twirl themselves around.

"THE Natsume Hyuuga is probably going to be there! Mikan, you know who he is, don't you?! We talk so much about him. He's the ultimate prince of all princes!" Anna basically yelled in the middle of the room.

"How can I not know?" Mikan rolled her eyes at the silly question. There's no one in campus who doesn't know who Natsume Hyuuga is; she hears his name everywhere in school among her fellow peers, especially the female students. She knows that he's a senior in the same Computer Science program as her and that he's extremely popular, handsome, smart and athletic but aside from that, she's never seen this man and doesn't know who he is either. But despite not knowing him, she still couldn't help but feel one tiny butterfly fluttering in the pit of her stomach at the mention of his name. At first, she hadn't cared about who this Mr. Popular was as he wasn't the only well known student at school but as time went on, she let the excitement from her peers and her roommates get into her. The fact that she's never seen him once and doesn't know how he looks like makes him all the more mysterious and makes her a little more curious about him. Just a little bit. _Yep, just a little bit. Keep telling yourself that, Mikan._ Although Mikan may or may not have a slight admiration for this _Natsume Hyuuga_ and may or may not get excited about seeing him, she's not like the rest of the school girls who goes crazy and wild about him. Just like what her pink haired roommate is doing now.

"Oh, Mikan! Nonoko! My dream will come true soon! This is fate, I know it. I'm finally going to see the prince of Alice Academy. No, the king! I want him so bad but he's so untouchable!" Anna cried out and held her fist out in the air as an act of struggle.

Mikan giggled at her antics and commented with, "Let's not get carried away here. Trust me, I want to see him too. But we don't even know how he looks like, he's like a faceless prince."

"All the more better for our imagination! We just gotta trust that he's hot and sexy like what everyone is saying!" Anna rebutted.

Nonoko stopped her twirling and gave Anna a flick on her forehead and said, "What Mikan said is true, we still can't get carried away with rumors. For all we know, he could be disgustingly ugly. Maybe he has a lot of nose hair poking out or has like an ungroomed bushy beard."

Mikan grimaced at Nonoko's statement, "No no no, let's not go _that_ far either. I'd like to stick to my imagination, thank you very much."

Anna flopped back down onto her bed face down, "I can just die happily and peacefully after I see him. I don't even have to talk to him, just seeing him is enough. No one can go near the prince since we are not thy majesty, except maybe Yuri."

To this, Mikan raised her eyebrows. Seeing the brunette's questioning gaze, Nonoko informed her of the latest craze going around at school, "Apparently, Yuri's seen who he is when they were both second year students and has fallen for him ever since. It's not official but since she is Miss number one beauty herself, it gave her the privilege to claim him first so everyone's kind of backing off and waiting to see what happens."

"Plus, they're both attractive people so they would probably look good together. And I know he definitely is handsome because if the school beauty herself has a crush on Natsume, then that must mean he really is good looking and hot." Anna piped up from where she was resting.

"Ah..I see." Mikan didn't know how she felt about the information of Yuri given to her. She didn't care too much about it, knowing that she only has a baseless admiration towards Yuri's crush like the rest of her peers but nothing too deep where she developed an actual affection towards him. With this in mind, she decided to play it safe and drop the whole "secret fangirl-ing of mysterious and faceless Natsume Hyuuga," not wanting to start another weird competition with her 'competitor.'

With the constant mention of Yuri's name, the brunette felt as if her stomach burned as it didn't sit well in her stomach so she changed the topic quickly, "Aside from her, let's go back to the soccer game. We don't even know if Hyuuga will show up since he's in another university right now."

"Ugh, you're so right about that fact." Nonoko sighed, "Did you really have to mention that?"

"Well, that reason plays a big factor as to why we never run into him and why we've never seen him even though we're all in the same program," Mikan reasoned logically, "It's too bad that he opted to continue his third and fourth year at University of Gakuin Institution of Technology (UGIT)."

"But he's still in the Computer Science program so maybe he'll show up? Very unlikely though," was Nonoko's dry response to her own question.

Anna felt her energy suddenly drain from her body and whined weakly, "Times like this, I wish our program wasn't a joint program with another university. We could've run into him like hundred times now if there was never an option to continue your third and fourth year at the other school. That or I wish he never chose to go there and just stayed here. God is too cruel to us."

"But speaking of which!" Anna quickly sat up from her languid position in bed, "Are you guys planning to stay at Alice Academy after your second year or do you plan on switching to UGIT for your final two years?"

Nonoko thought for a bit before speaking up, "I'm not sure yet..when the times comes, I'll just decide. What about you Mikan?"

The brunette didn't even blink an eye when she responded with, "I'll be completing the joint program as it is. UGIT is quite prestigious and is famous for its technology. They have far better and higher quality resources than this school does so yeah, I'll be finishing my senior years there. It's a joint program for a reason and also, the degree handed out is slightly different than if you were to stay your entire four years at this school. Having a record of you attending UGIT would look good on your resume if you plan on getting a head start than everyone else in this program."

"Geez, Mikan. You already decided huh," Anna sweatdropped. "If you two are going, then I'm going too."

"Yass girl, please come! There's no harm in staying or leaving since it's the same program at the end but I'm going to be a sad and lonely potato if you two aren't with me during the final years." Mikan pouted at the thought of being by herself without her two loud mouthed friends.

"Aw, you're too cute Mikan!" Nonoko gushed and jumped on the brunette for a hug, "If you say it like that, then of course I'll come with you!"

"Same!" Anna followed suit and glomped her two friends in a big bear hug, "We'll always be together!"

* * *

"I'm done! Woot woot!" Mikan exclaimed and placed the screwdriver on top of the desk and proceeded to stretch her arms out in the air to relieve the stress. After having finished all her school work and receiving the capacitors that she ordered online, Mikan chose to fix her laptop and had successfully done so. She quickly started up her laptop and waited for the screen to light up and when it did, it prompted her to log in. After having logged in to her laptop and seeing no troubles arising, she whooped in her seat once more and excitedly logged in to Gakuen Ghost Story.

"Oh my!" Nonoko blurted when she passed by Mikan, "You actually fixed your laptop? As expected of you, Mikan! You never cease to amaze me sometimes. If I ever have any hardware problems with my computer, I'll come to you okay~?"

Mikan flashed a bright smile towards her friend, showing off her pearly whites before flipping her hair off her shoulder egotistically in a joking and sassy manner.

Anna, having heard of Nonoko's statement, came up behind Mikan to see if the repair was indeed successful only to be met with the brunette's game popping up and filling the entire screen. "Woow, first thing you do after fixing your laptop is to play your game? Mikan, you're truly unbelievable. I don't even know what to say."

"Hm? I finished all my assignments and I finished my repairs so what else can I do on this perfect Friday evening but play? If you don't know what to say, you can always compliment me and tell me how efficient and responsible I am." Mikan grinned cheekily.

"Geez, girl. You're so narcissistic, that was a complete pompous comment." Anna giggled and went back to her desk and continued with her school work. Nonoko, on the other hand, bid her roommates goodbye as she headed off to the rest of her day.

Having logged back onto the game after few days, Mikan was met with a message notification almost immediately before she could even head off to the Northern forest to gather some herbs and materials to build her equipments. She opened up the private message only to reveal it was from her online partner.

 _CelebReo_ : Hey Miki, we need to talk.

 _MikiOrange_ : Uh oh, "the talk" huh. Am I in trouble?

 _CelebReo_ : Ah, nothing like that.

Mikan was about to make a joke when she saw the next thing he said,

 _CelebReo_ : But let's dissolve our marriage.

-x-

* * *

Dun dun! Cliff hanger but not really cliffhanger LOL the ones who watched the drama already knows what's coming but let's keep it hush hush for those who never watched it yet.

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	8. Chapter 8

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

\- In Game Life -

MikiOrange, for a lack of better word, was stupefied.

"Uh..is everything good?" Was all she could come up with as she stared into the three-dimensional image of her holographed husband from the telecommunication device used to communicate with other players.

The holographed version of CelebReo answered back, "Yeah..no, I mean… ***sigh*** just come, alright? You know I don't like it when you ask too many questions."

"..." Dumbfounded, MikiOrange merely stared at her partner's image on top of her palm where the communication device, a tiny square box, laid.

"I'll see you soon at the Hanahime Den," was the curt response to MikiOrange's loss of words before the device went 'bzzt' and the illumination disappeared.

"Ah, wait!" MikiOrange cried out, a second too late. With confusion laced all over her brain, she mindlessly travelled by foot, about ten kilometers away, towards the meetup place. When she reached the location, she sucked in a breath at the beautiful and rare sight laid out in front of her. Although she's been here once or twice, the architecture's art work never cease to amaze her; Hanahime Den is where a traditional Japanese building resides that looked similar to that of a castle from the olden days. At the east end of the location, there sat a building made of two identical wooden open halls divided by a corridor with several poles holding the structure up, magnificently covered by a single roof with intricate designs and gable ends. In front of the unique architecture, that looked a mix of a traditional Japanese gate and a sanctuary, sat a large boulder, called the Stone of Marriage. A few ways behind the stone stood a statue of a beautiful and elegant figure of a woman with long wavy, black hair that fell down her back. The woman figure donned an exquisite kimono with an equally stunning hairpin accessorizing her head and she had a small smile gracing her delicate features with her hands placed on top of one another in front of her. The woman is famously known as Himemiya, Gakuen Ghost Story's Goddess of Love, and is also known as "Hii-sama" as many had adoringly nicknamed her. As one can guess, this is the place where couples can get married or divorced or even have their pets get married in order to breed. And rumor has it that the statue of Himemiya will drool if she ever finds the perfect couple and pronounce them as official lovers. Of course, that never happened to MikiOrange when she got married to CelebReo, not that she was expecting anything; she just thought it would be an interesting sight to see a statue drool.

Sure enough, MikiOrange found her partner waiting at the Stone of Marriage and as soon as he saw her, he met her halfway and clasped her right hand with one of his own.

"Miki, you're here. I've been waiting."

Shrugging his hand off of hers, MikiOrange walked up towards the statue and stared at it for a moment before turning back towards CelebReo, "Hii-sama sure is pretty huh?"

Walking up beside her, CelebReo placed a hand on her shoulder, "You're just as pretty as her, you know?"

All the brunette could do was snort out loud, "As if you've seen me in real life, so what is this about?"

"True that. But you're still very pretty in the game. And..it's complicated, I'm sorry Miki. Let's dissolve it right away now, alright?" Was his indistinguishable response.

Not wanting to pry any further, MikiOrange simply dropped the whole topic and decided to go along with her soon to be ex-husband's wish.

" _Marriage is not a noun, it's a verb. It isn't something you get, it's something you do. A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. But it's not the lack of love that makes an unhappy marriage; it's the lack of friendship. On this bright sunny day, just as the clouds form and change, change in relationships also happen in time. It is, after all, the only constant in life. What will you decide?"_ Came the announcement in a silky and gentle voice, most probably from "Himemiya."

A large holographic screen popped up in front of MikiOrange, as well as for CelebReo, and they both hovered their hands above the "Dissolve Marriage" option. Having selected that, another message of confirmation replaced the previous message with, "Will this be your final decision to dissolve the partnership?" Again, both party hovered their hands near the screen and selected the "Yes" option.

MikiOrange can't say with a hundred percent certainty but she thought for sure, she saw the statue of Himemiya looking sad for a moment after she made her decision. A single tear dropped from one of the statue's eyes before breaking off into two and flying towards each individual respectively.

 _"_ _Drink this potent of Love Me Not potion, from here on with a clean slate, lovers becomes strangers."_

Having drank the 'potion,' an announcement was made into the world broadcast section in their server, _"CelebReo and MikiOrange have now officially separated. They will be going on their own separate journeys as their fate together comes to an end."_

"Well, I'm outtie. I have some quests to finish," was the first thing MikiOrange said as newly ex-lovers and turned to wave goodbye.

"Wait, Miki." Rummaging through his pockets, CelebReo pulled out a small circle device that lit up a holographic image of a high-quality knife meant for assassin weapon-use, "Before you go, take this weapon as a gift from me. It's sort of like compensation I guess, for the sudden divorce. I really am sorry."

Flashing a smile towards him, MikiOrange simply replied with, "Ah, no worries. There's no need to be sorry really, we only partnered up to go on the couple quests together so it's not a big deal. If we ever get a chance, let's go on missions together again."

"Alright, thanks Miki." CelebReo gave the brunette a small, grateful smile before heading off to his own daily routine.

With an unexpected situation out of the way, MikiOrange used her teleportation device and teleported straight deep into the Northern Forest where a hidden cave resides for higher leveled players. While inside, she slashed away at the dark shadow monsters in search for high quality item drops, completely unaware that there were two players outside waiting for her. She continued the bloody battle until she heard a faint echo coming from the entrance of the cave so MikiOrange went back the way she came from and saw two female players blocking the cave opening.

"Finally! We've been trying to call you for like, forever, you know?" A woman, donning a shoulder length curly hair with a hint of dark green undertone to it, cried out. Clad in a forest green witch-like outfit, she stood with one hand placed on her hip and with one foot tapping impatiently on the dirt.

"Ah, Seaweedpermz! You were looking for me? Hotaru, you too?!"

"You're an idiot, you know that?" The girl bit out harshly. "What the hell are you doing here after what happened?"

"I wasn't particularly looking for you… She insisted on dragging me here." Was the curt response from the other girl with short, black hair, giving her a more mature look in comparison to the other two ladies present.

Ignoring her short-haired friend, MikiOrange was about to retort back to SeaweedPermz when she was suddenly blasted into the air with a force to be reckon with and hit the wall near her with a loud crack. She then dropped to the ground with a heavy thud, taking down eight percent of her health with her. Looking up, she noticed the purple eyed girl with short hair holding onto a gun-like weapon meant for the rangers class and cried out, "What the hell was that for?!"

"For calling me by my name, you know you're not supposed to do that outside of private chats." The girl, now known as Hotaru, said out loud before blowing at the top of her gun. "By the way, this is my latest invention. I call it 'Baka Gun 005.'" She announced proudly and placed it back in its holster attached to her outfit near her hip.

"Who the heck actually names their gun that's from a game?" MikiOrange muttered under her breath bitterly.

Mortified, the curly haired girl could only gape at the broken sight of her friend still a heap of bloody mess on the ground. "Miki, heal yourself and get up. It's time for girl talk, I have some tea to spill."

Doing as she was instructed, MikiOrange pulled out a potion and drank it, feeling the effects of the red drink healing her cuts almost immediately after. As soon as she looked presentable, SeaweedPermz practically hauled the poor girl outside the cave and dragged her two friends to a clearing in the middle of the forest where it gave the trio more privacy.

"Good, we're out of the damn cave," SeaweedPermz shivered, "I can legit die with one hit from that shadow."

"True that. So what's up, I feel like something big happened." MikiOrange wondered out loud, eyes wide in anticipation for the news about to be given to her.

"How are you so relaxed right now?! Right, IceQueen? Say something to this idiot."

"...Miki, you broke up with whatshisface?" IceQueen asked with no emotion.

"Eh? Is this what this is about?" MikiOrange quirked her head to the side, "Yeah, we dissolved our marriage, why?"

"What do you mean why? Did he give you a reason why?!" SeaweedPermz practically yelled out loud.

"No, not really. He just said he wanted to divorce so..yeah." MikiOrange laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, "I just went along with him. To be honest, it's not even a big deal."

"..." IceQueen stayed quiet for a short moment before finally opening her mouth to speak, "Did you go online yet?"

"..?" was the brunette's unspoken question.

SeaweedPermz took her silence as opportunity to explain, "Apparently, your ex-husband ran off with Soul-Sucking Seductress. This is what I've been meaning to tell you."

"Wait, who?" Dumbfounded, MikiOrange didn't even have the chance to be shocked over the actual news delivered to her a second ago.

Slapping a hand to her forehead, SeaweedPermz explained once more, "Soul-Sucking Seductress! Her real name is Luna Koizumi, she posted her picture online. If you go on the forum, you can go to her account and check out her profile. No lie, she's actually really pretty."

"Oh," MikiOrange let her lips fall into an 'o' shape when IceQueen reached out and poked at her cheek.

"A fly will go in if you leave it open any longer."

"As if, it's only a game," MikiOrange reasoned, but regardless, she still pursed her lips back together.

SeaweedPermz suddenly took ahold of MikiOrange's shoulders and shook them hard, so much so that the poor girl's body rocked back and forth harshly. "Will you focus, Miki! Go online and check it out, won't you?"

"O-oh right, I'll get to it right now." Was her troubled response; sometimes, her curly-haired friend really scares her.

\- IRL -

Mikan opened up her internet browser and went on the google engine and typed in the game website forum address. After being lead to the site, she logged in to her account and typed in 'Soul-Sucking Seductress' in the 'Find Players' search bar. True enough, she came upon the player's profile which had her real name, age, and picture up online for everyone to see. Just as SeaweedPermz had mentioned, this Luna Koizumi girl was indeed a beauty. Mikan couldn't help but compare her to an apple for her hair was as red and healthy looking as one. Minimizing her browser, Mikan went back to her game to let her online friends know of what she had just saw after successfully stalking a random player's profile. Opening up the party chatroom, Mikan immediately sent them a message:

 _MikiOrange_ : k, I'm bacckk ^-^

 _SeaweedPermz_ : so, how was it?

 _SeaweedPermz_ : did you see her

 _MikiOrange_ : yea, she's super pretty :o

 _SeaweedPermz_ : that's what I said, hmph

 _MikiOrange_ : and you're right

 _SeaweedPermz_ : keke, I'm always right :D

 _SeaweedPermz_ : So you're actually good? From the break up, I mean

 _MikiOrange_ : Oh yeah, dw 'bout it. I told you this

 _MikiOrange_ : like 100 times

 _MikiOrange_ : We only coupled up for the quests so it's no biggie for real. trust

 _SeaweedPermz_ : fine, finee. I believe you

 _IceQueen_ : …

 _IceQueen_ : I think Reo is an idiot, to be seduced so easily..smh

 _SeaweedPermz_ : I think he's hot

 _MikiOrange_ : Of course you would ***sigh***

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Have you seen his profile thoo? Damnn, his body is finee

 _SeaweedPermz_ : them washboard abs, geez

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Miki, I say you sure lost in this one

 _MikiOrange_ : LOL, he's aight. How do you even know he has abs?

 _MikiOrange_ : He's fully clothed in his profile pic

 _SeaweedPermz_ : ARE YOU BLIND?

 _SeaweedPermz_ : DO YOU NOT SEE HIS PROFILE PICTURE? YOU CAN PRACTICALLY SEE HIS BODY UNDER THAT TIGHT ASS TANK

 _IceQueen_ : Get a room, Shouda

 _IceQueen_ : You're too horny

 _SeaweedPermz_ : WHAT

 _SeaweedPermz_ : NO

 _SeaweedPermz_ : WTH

 _SeaweedPermz_ : And I thought we all agreed to not call each other by our real names in the game?

 _MikiOrange_ : OO EM GEE! DOES THIS MEAN I GET TO HIT YOU NOW? YOU CALLED PERMZ BY HER REAL NAME

 _IceQueen_ : Try me

 _MikiOrange_ : …

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Miki, you don't even make sense. _I_ should be the one to hit her because she said _my_ name

 _MikiOrange_ : just let it be

 _MikiOrange_ : actually, you can go hit her. I think I'll pass :p

 _IceQueen_ : heh, that's what I thought

 _SeaweedPermz_ : oh, so now you're a pussy huh?

 _MikiOrange_ : goddammm, language girl

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Anyways, are you gonna snatch him back?

 _MikiOrange_ : wha?

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Reo, duh!

 _SeaweedPermz_ : It's so obvious he needs rescuing

 _MikiOrange_ : what are you talking aout?

 _IceQueen_ : *about

 _MikiOrange_ : *about

 _MikiOrange_ : -.-

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Luna was after some guy before Reo, like she was all over some guy in the high rankings just so he could gift her free shit

 _SeaweedPermz_ : but now she went after your man cause like

 _MikiOrange_ : he's not my man

 _SeaweedPermz_ : she knows he's rich or something so now they're together

 _SeaweedPermz_ : they've been going on dungeons together for a while now too

 _MikiOrange_ : oh, how come I didn't even know about this

 _IceQueen_ : 'cause you're dumb

 _MikiOrange_ : -_-

 _MikiOrange_ : DO YOU WANNA FIGHT ME?

 _IceQueen_ : No, thank you. I'd like to keep my hands fairly clean

 _SeaweedPermz_ : ANYWAY

 _MikiOrange_ : .

 _SeaweedPermz_ : she's clearly after his money

 _MikiOrange_ : ..

 _SeaweedPermz_ : that's why Miki, you should go be his knight and shining armor

 _MikiOrange_ : …

 _SeaweedPermz_ : and save him!

 _MikiOrange_ : ….

 _SeaweedPermz_ : Are you really gonna be annoying like that

 _MikiOrange_ : yes

 _MikiOrange_ : you know you love it

 _MikiOrange_ : it was more for IceQueen but okies, kill two birds with one stone if it's affecting you too

 _IceQueen_ : Who said I was affected?

 _MikiOrange_ : I SAID SO

 _IceQueen_ : And how do you know exactly?

 _MikiOrange_ : CUZ I KNOW SO

 _MikiOrange_ : Anyways, I got you permz. No worries, he can do whatever he wants

 _MikiOrange_ : If it bothers you that much, you can go claim him ;)

 _SeaweedPermz_ : That, I will :D

 _MikiOrange_ : I'll brb actually, talk to you guys soon

 _MikiOrange_ : gonna leave this on but you know your homegirl is hungry

 _MikiOrange_ : need to feed my food belly asap LOL baiii

 _SeaweedPermz_ : bye girl

 _IceQueen_ : Bye

In the midst of all the chatting, Mikan left her character wandering around Central Town, seeing if anyone has set up a stall to put their items/equipments up for sale. After bidding her online friends farewell, she left her character untouched at a standstill at a random area before getting ready to head to the school cafeteria to get food with Anna. Little did she know, for what is to come in the future, how grave her mistake was of leaving her game counterpart alone and unsupervised at Central Town.

-x-

* * *

All will be continued and revealed in the next chapter :D

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	9. Chapter 9

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

I apologize for being away for so long but a new school term started for me so I got caught up with it and I just finished my midterm exams so I thought now is the best time to write a new chapter and upload it for you guys ^-^

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

\- In Game Life -

" _Love is patient, love is kind. It always protects, it always trusts. A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. Congratulations CelebReo and Soul-Sucking Seductress! United as one, you are now pledged as eternal lovers."_

After having their love broadcasted for everyone to see, CelebReo turned towards his new lover and stared at her, completely entranced at her beauty. He was back at the same place, _at Hanahime Den_ , where he just broke off the marriage with his former wife few hours ago in order to make the wedding vows with the attractive woman standing beside him.

Noticing that the man was staring at her, Soul-Sucking Seductress caught his eye and sent a coy smile his way, along with a flirty wink. She then turned to face her new husband and daringly pulled him into an embrace, "Won't you kiss me already?"

Not having to be told twice, CelebReo wasted no time to break off the embrace in order to cup the woman's cheeks and planted a soft kiss on her lips that gradually grew with lust. As the kiss lasted longer than few seconds, the crowd around them started cheering and whistling at the bold newlywed couple.

CelebReo couldn't help but have his chest swell with pride for managing to get together with a beauty, a _real_ beauty at that too. He broke off the kiss and beamed at the crowd watching them and loudly announced, "Friends, fellow guildmates, and rival guilds, I thank you all for responding to the invitation and attending our wedding. It means a lot to me and to my beautiful wife that you came to celebrate this special day with us, now let us get the parade started!"

With loud cheers and hollers, the guests and the couple got ready for the customary wedding parade around Central Town. Already having donned an extraordinary white wedding gown prior to the vows, Soul-Sucking Seductress crouched and entered the historical chinese wedding sedan chair that was used to carry the bride. The sedan, being one of the most expensive ones available in the wedding package, was royal purple in color and engraved with delicate swirls of white and gold in an elegant manner that brought much pride and joy to the woman sitting inside. She smiled devilishly to herself, knowing that she has snagged a wealthy husband this time round.

CelebReo assembled the parade into a neat file, with close friends following directly behind his wife, the guildmates next and then the other guilds behind them. An uncommon white horse was shortly brought over to him, decorated in a complimentary royal purple and gold saddle to match the decoration on the sedan. Seeing the horse, CelebReo let out a whistle out of admiration, joined by some of his friends.

"Dang Reo, you sure know how to throw an expensive wedding. The horse and the sedan chair sure are uncommon ones."

The groom allowed the compliment to soak in his ego before responding haughtily, "With the amount of money I spent on this custom wedding package, I'd be damned if they didn't send me this horse."

He cut the conversation short at that and led the horse directly in front of where Soul-Sucking Seductress was at. Signaling the bearers to get ready to carry his wife, CelebReo mounted the mammal with ease and stroked the back of its head. With four bearers, each holding onto one of the stick ends of the sedan chair, they lifted the bride up onto their shoulders and waited for the groom's orders. After another round of check up, CelebReo declared the start of the parade out loud and moved his horse forward.

As the group walked around Central Town showing off the couple's wealth, it came to no one's surprise that they attracted mass attention for the rarity of such luxurious and impressive wedding march. Had this been any other player's wedding, the traditional parade wouldn't have been as extravagant and expensive as this one was. Several applauses was sounded, followed by shouts of approval and admiration. Women who had gathered about loudly expressed their wish to be the bride instead and congratulated Soul-Sucking Seductress on being lucky and finding a rich and handsome husband. Likewise, men also expressed their want for a bride that was entrancingly beautiful in the game and outside the game as well.

Well aware of the crowd's awe-inspired compliments, Soul-Sucking Seductress smiled widely, proud of what she had accomplished. With a feigned pout and a gentle touch to his chest, she had managed to get CelebReo to buy her all that she wanted in order to have a noteworthy wedding. Although she had wanted the most expensive set of every part of the wedding package, she knew she had to show a bit of modesty and act humble in order to keep up with her image. So she went for the third most expensive wedding package and carefully chose items that were within the top five category. And that included the very pricey, albeit uncustomary, wedding gown that she wore, as well as the groom's chinese ethnic white suit. Even though she didn't choose the best package or items that were number one on the lists, Soul-Sucking Seductress knew that no other player would be able to top her for they lacked the kind of money to spend on such an upscale wedding that required real life money usage. She had her wedding strategically customized with a mix of eastern and western style to make it look unique and lavish, with full intention of grabbing as much attention as possible. And as she had successfully done so, she felt her ego blossom to an even larger size than it already was.

CelebReo was rounding a corner of a street when he suddenly caught sight of a female in red assassin clothing standing off to the side, near a rather large sakura tree. With mixed feelings, he wondered why _she_ came to check out his wedding and continued the slow march around town with confusion clouding his mind. However, the female assassin had not gone unnoticed by Soul-Sucking Seductress' three lackeys, Suzu1, Tami-lara, and Rie. They too wondered why their brother-in-law's _ex_ -wife had shown up but merely shrugged it off as jealousy and walked in silence behind their bestfriend's sedan chair.

CelebReo was trying to ignore what he had just saw but he suddenly halted his tracks at what he heard next, causing everybody following behind him to stop as well. By coincidence, a random person had suddenly commented out loud about the assassin girl herself.

"I wonder how MikiOrange is doing right now...she must be heartbroken."

The statement must have hit a chord because what followed suit was a bunch of other alike comments from the throng of people that was witnessing the event. But just as sudden as the topic and discussion had come up, someone yelled out loud,

"Wait, isn't that MikiOrange standing right there?!"

Having spotted her, a collection of gasp and astonishment came over everyone and out of shock, nobody knew what to say except for one brave soul.

"I see CelebReo's ex wife standing near the sakura tree!"

This statement, too, managed to stir the crowd and everyone started speaking over one another.

"I see her too! What is she doing here?" One said.

"I'm standing near her and I think she looks very sad." Another had commented.

"Wow, I feel sorry towards her."

"Same. To be dumped so suddenly only to witness her lover being swept off by another woman."

"Why is she just standing there and not saying anything?"

The buzz among the crowd became wild as everyone started throwing their own opinions and assumptions of why MikiOrange was there. And that's when some idiots started yelling,

"Hey hey, don't you think MikiOrange is here to snatch the groom back? This is going to be so damn fun to watch! Come on, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!"

"Nah, no way!" Someone sniggered, "Apparently, CelebReo left her because she's truly a man in disguise!"

With this remark, the crowd once again went off on a frenzy about the rumor and gossiped among themselves, forgetting that the newlywed couple were in clear hearing range.

* * *

\- IRL -

Mikan closed the door shut behind her as her and Anna came back from eating at the cafeteria. Without waiting even one second, she made a beeline straight for her laptop to continue her game but as soon as she sat down, Mikan reeled back as shock and slight panic overcame her body at the sight she was greeted with.

She looked at the commotion surrounding her in-game counterpart, soaking in the sight of her in-game ex-husband, the wedding, and the crowd. Baffled, she dared not open the _All_ chat but curiosity got the best of her and as the saying goes, curiosity sure as hell killed the cat.

 _This much has transpired over the short amount of time I was gone for? ...Oh my. What did I even do to make them assume so much about me..._

She was disgusted and awed at the same at the wild imagination and gossip that took over the world chat. She furrowed her brows and frowned at those who back talked about her but cheered silently at those who did defend her. After scrolling the chat for what seemed like forever, Mikan realized she had caught up with the present conversation.

 _Random Player:_ This is why I hate the internet sometimes, you pigs only know how to make shit up and ruin another person completely

 _RanDom Player:_ Oh shut up! You know you love the drama that's happening

 _RAndom Player:_ Ye, if you don't like it then get off the internet! It's an online game so what do you expect?

 _RaNdom PlaYer:_ Mannn, I wish mikiorange would just beat the shit out of seductress rn

 _RandoM Player:_ Lol that'd be so hot ;)

 _Random PLayer:_ Why would you want the bride to be beaten up on her wedding day, that's just harsh

 _Random PLAyer:_ Cuz she a hoe :(

 _random player:_ Yeah! Soul-Sucking Seductress is shameless! She stole MikiOrange's man!

 _Random PlayER:_ HOMEWRECKER D:

 _RanDOm PlaYEr:_ Seductress is shameless!

 _RandOM PlayeR:_ I agree!

 _Random PLAYER:_ Same, I think she's a homewrecker too.

Having read enough and feeling terrible about the conversation that took place, Mikan decided to step in and do something when she noticed that one of Soul-Sucking Seductress' friends also messaged in the _All_ chat.

 _Rie:_ Hey Mikiorange, you slut. What's the deal with you huh?!"

 _Rie:_ You were dumped by CelebReo and yet you have the nerve to show up? Aren't you even ashamed of yourself?

 _Random PLAYer:_ Oh please, who's really the slut here huh? I don't see MikiOrange stealing another person's man and being all petty by showing off to the rest of the world at what she snatched

 _Suzu1:_ stfu, you weirdo. who are you anyway?

 _Suzu1:_ but what Rie said is right. mikiorange, what's up with you? do you hate seductress that much that you have to come here and cause trouble?

 _Tami-lara:_ Our poor best friend is being bullied here by everyone and especially your ex, Celeb Reo! Do something about this! I thought you broke it off with her already or were you lying about that?!

 _Suzu1:_ explain to us, celebreo! why is this happening on such a precious day? do you know how much Seductress is hurting right now because of this?

 _Rie:_ You better not be two timing here or I swear, we'll make sure you never live it down

 _Soul-Sucking Seductress:_ Guys, enough is enough. Don't take this out on CelebReo, I'm sure he didn't mean for this to happen on purpose. I trust him and you guys should as well.

 _Tami-lara:_ yeah, we understand. Sorry we went too far, Celeb Reo..

 _Rie:_ Fine, whatever

 _Suzu1:_ regardless, you better make this up to her and us too!

 _CelebReo:_ Seductress, don't worry about this. I will clear it up for you so just cheer up, okay? Let's get going.

With that, Mikan watched her ex lead the wedding march away from Central Town. Placing her fingers on the keyboard uncertainly, Mikan hesitated in typing anything because really, _what could she say?_ If she made her character leave the area now, everyone would assume that she is indeed heartbroken and ran off crying but if she stayed, everyone would also assume that she is jealous and intended to cause trouble by showing up. But if she doesn't say anything, all the gossips would just continue and if she tried to explain, they would just say she is making excuses. Really, anything she does now would be a lose-lose situation for her. She racked her brain for any idea to come to mind and was caught off guard when a _ping!_ noise sounded. She looked over and saw that CelebReo had messaged her privately. With an exasperated sigh, she opened up the private chat room.

 _CelebReo:_ Miki Orange! Honestly, what are you trying to pull right now?

 _CelebReo:_ I thought you were cool with this. We talked it over few hours ago.

 _CelebReo:_ You have no idea how angry I am right now. Seriously, what are you doing? I tried to give you the equipment for compensation and you didn't even want it. So why all of a sudden with this appearance?

 _CelebReo:_ You knew something big like this was going to happen and there would be a lot of people so why would you show up like this?

Reading the last message, Mikan mentally and physically slapped herself for not coming up with the plan earlier. She then thanked her online ex-husband in her head for basically giving her the idea.

 _MikiOrange:_ It's as you've said. I came to celebrate this big festivity like everybody else. And also use this as an opportunity to make some extra dough, if you know what I'm saying ;p

She then switched the private chat to the _All_ chat and announced out loud-

 _MikiOrange:_ Come one, come all! Everyone, I have high ranked item drops with me for sale. Come take a look and see what you'd like to buy. Everything is 35% off!

Another commotion stirred up as the crowd fought with one another to get the high ranked items from her and when her bag was wiped clean of any more items, Mikan announced to them that the sale was over.

 _MikiOrange:_ Alright, I'm officially out of items. It was nice doing business with all of you but I have to go now.

 _Random Player:_ Aw man, this sucks

 _Random PlaYer:_ Wait, Mikiorange! When will you be back to sell again?

 _MikiOrange:_ hmmm...whenever I feel like it :p

 _RandOm Player:_ Stingy! Anyways, let's leave. There's nothing anymore

 _RandoM Player:_ Yeah, festivities are over! I've got shit to do, bye!

As the crowd dispersed, Mikan walked her character back towards the sakura tree where she was resting at initially and let out a long sigh of relief. After massaging her temples to reduce the stress she got from the drama, she lazily walked over to where the mini fridge was at and grabbed a bottle of orange juice to relax herself when a _ping!_ sounded. Heading back to her laptop, she saw she received yet another _whisper_ message. She opened it, highly expecting it to be from _CelebReo_ but her jaw dropped at what she read instead.

 _Black cat._

No way, she did not read that right. Completely shell shocked, she blinked her eyes several times and when she saw that the player's name didn't change, she still doubted herself and rubbed her eyes this time with her sleeve. But still, her eyes wasn't fooling her or anyone else for that matter. _THE Black cat_ just messaged her. The top ranked player of the server. Messaged her. HER. Everyone knew of this player for he was not only the strongest and the richest, but was also the most badass player of all time. He held the number one position in their server for the longest time, since the game ever launched and was rumored to be extremely handsome. But at the end of the day, nobody knows who the person is behind the player so people could only talk and use their imagination. And that only made him all the more mysterious and female players always chased after him and bestowed him with gifts upon more gifts to get him to marry them.

Mikan hadn't realized she left her mouth hanging wide open until she felt a bit of her saliva drool down to her chin. Unabashed, she just wiped it off with the back of her hand and with a sharp twist of her wrist, she uncapped her juice bottle and took a swig of her drink. Feeling much better and confident that her throat won't dry out on her, she sat herself down and proceeded to _read_ what the player had actually sent her.

 _Black cat:_ You sure know how to get yourself out of a sticky situation, MikiOrange.

Mikan almost fainted when she saw that the actual master himself had called her by her name. Well, her game counterpart's name but it was close enough. Fanning herself to suppress her cheeks from flushing any longer, she somehow managed to calm her nerves down, just enough to realize that there were no characters near her game counterpart. Mikan clicked on her screen and swiveled left and right in a panning motion to get the camera to move around so she has more vision of what is surrounding her in-game character. Still unable to find the source of the message, she finally messaged back.

 _MikiOrange:_ ..Black cat? You called out to me?

 _Black cat:_ Hn

 _MikiOrange:_ Um, I don't see you :$

 _Black cat:_ Behind you

 _Wah?_

Confused, Mikan looked at the screen once more but still couldn't see any player behind her, much less near her. She was about to type something when all of a sudden, she saw a character in all black clothing jump down the sakura tree that she has been idling at.

 _MikiOrange:_ Oh you were there this whole time? Lol, I didn't see you at all

 _Black cat:_ What did you think of the wedding?

 _Did he call me here to gossip as well?_ Mikan couldn't help but think that maybe _Black cat_ called her over just to talk about the ordeal that occurred and for some reason, that thought disappointed her.

 _MikiOrange:_ Um..

 _MikiOrange:_ I think it was quite grand

 _Black cat:_ Would you like to have an even grander wedding ceremony?

 _MikiOrange:_ yeah, that'd be nice.. I think. Why?

 _Black cat:_ Couple up with me

-x-

* * *

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update

those of you who watched the series, I'm sorry okay . I couldn't help but copy word for word for the last three of Black cat's lines because to me, they were just 100% classic. Especially the line, "Would you like to have an even grander wedding ceremony?" I still feel butterflies in my stomach when I think about that scene in particular. I couldn't change it no matter what because it didn't seem right to change THE classic line of all time (to me, at least).

Pps. I changed my pen name to Dinasaurus and it's only temporarily. Idk when I will change it back but I'm going to see if I like this name better or not.


	10. Chapter 10

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Note: I've been gone for a while because I got busy with post-secondary school and honestly had no time to even _eat_ and get a proper amount of sleep. But Christmas is here and I wanted to wish you guys a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! After my exams, I'll be sure to update some more chapters. Please do forgive me for my tardiness.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OC's are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

"No. Fucking. Way."

"Mikan!" Anna swiveled her chair around from her desk station where she was working on her online assignment to stare wide-eyed at her best friend, who normally refrains from cursing.

"Anna…"

"..yeah?"

"Mikan, is something wrong?"

"..." was the response to the pinkette's worry.

Anna continued to stare at the brunette's head and when the girl kept her silence, she walked around the table where Mikan was at in order to get a better look at her friend.

"Oh my, Mikan! Your face is RED, like really really red."

Taken aback by her friend's flushed face, she reached out to touch her forehead to test out the temperature. Anna jerked her hand back as soon as her palm came into contact with said girl's forehead.

"You're hot! Oh my goodness, you're heating up. Mikan, let me touch your neck. I think you're getting sick, maybe a fever? Let me go get a thermo-"

The pink-haired girl stopped mid sentence when she heard a loud slap.

Lifting her hands away from her face, Mikan once again brought them down hard onto her already rosy cheeks. This action causes the noise of skin-slapping-skin to bounce off the walls once more and surround the small space that the best friends share. Anna had left her mouth hanging in the form of her cut-off sentence and when her friend did not cease to cause bodily harm to her own poor, puffy cheeks, Anna decided to step in to break up the self assault.

"Mikan, darling.. I think that's more than enough," Anna calls out softly. But when it occurs to her that the brunette had no intention of stopping anytime soon even after her failed attempts of yanking her friend's arms apart, Anna decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. She rushed to her bed where she had hidden a box of fluff puffs under her massive collection of stuffed toys and reveals the sweet treat in all its pink fluffy glory to Mikan. Noticing the box that contained her favourite pink ball of fluffs in Anna's hands, Mikan immediately halted her dramatic shenanigans.

"Is that for me?" Her delicate voice whispered, almost as if she was afraid the ball of pink fluffiness would evaporate into thin air if she even so much as disrupt the sudden peace that took over the room.

"A friend of mine went to visit Niigata Prefecture for a short trip and I had her bring me back a souvenir." Anna smiled knowingly, "I know how much you love these so I was going to save it for a surprise tonight when Nonoko got back, but I suppose it worked to get you to uh..calm down."

Mikan got a little teary-eyed at her friend's thoughtfulness and stood up to give her a big bear hug.

"Aww, I don't deserve a friend like you," Mikan smiled sweetly. "Thank you. "

"Well, aren't you going to take one?" Anna giggled at the brunette's cuteness and returned the hug warm heartedly. "And you scared me earlier, what happened?"

At the latter question, Mikan's face went beet red and she plopped back down onto her seat and covered her face with her hands. Anna sat back down on her chair and waited patiently for the other girl to open up.

"...-posed to me..." Mikan all but mumbled into the palms of her hands.

"Hm? I didn't quite catch that, Mikan."

"Black cat proposed to me," Mikan confessed daintily, looking up from her hands shyly to peer at her friend.

"OMG, congratulations Mikan!" Anna cheered loudly. But in a quick 180 turn-

"BUT WHO THE FRHGR IS BLACK CAT? You'redatingsomeoneandyounevermentionedittomeyoutraitor?! AND YOU'RE LIKE 19 YEARS OLD! MIKAN I AM AGAINS-"

"Anna, no! He's from the game," Mikan cut her off mid rant to clear up the misunderstanding, "He's literally the best player of the Tokyo server, perhaps the best of all the servers combined. And he asked me to couple up with him."

"Oh, huh." Was all Anna could say, blinking several times. "Mikan, I uh...I have no words for you. You made it seem like something big happened and it was because of the game?"

 _Because it IS something big._

"Sorry," Mikan apologized sheepishly, one hand scratching the back of her head and the other holding onto the box of treats that Anna had surprised her with. "I just got a bit too excited there, I didn't mean to worry you. By the way, Anna, let's save the fluff puffs for when Nonoko gets back."

"Sure thing. So what did you say to the guy anyway?" Anna asked.

Mikan's eyes suddenly grew wide as saucers and they practically popped out of her eye sockets when she realized she had not yet responded to Black cat.

"You did not respond to him at all, did you?" Anna laughed out loud, knowing that her best friend is an air head sometimes. " 'kay, I'm heading back to finish my assignment since nothing seems to be wrong here."

 _Something IS wrong, dammit! Stupid stupid Mikan. How can you just leave the chat?! Get ahead of yourself!_

Not wasting another second to beat herself up over her mistake, Mikan turned back to her game, praying to the heavens above that Black cat didn't get impatient with her lack of response and just left altogether. Sighing in relief when she saw that he was still where she last saw him, she placed her fingers to type a response.

However, her fingers paused on top of the keyboard as she hesitated. _What_ should she respond? Mikan racked her brain as to why the master himself wishes to couple up with her out of all players. Unable to come up with a reasoning, she finally settled with:

 _MikiOrange:_ Haha, your account isn't hacked right? Is this really Black cat?"

 _Black cat:_ Took you 10 mins to say that?

Unsurprisingly, Mikan felt her face light up from embarrassment at the text she read on her screen. Taking a sip from her neglected orange juice, she then put all her attention on the chat.

 _MikiOrange:_ ahaha

 _MikiOrange:_ Sorry about that, I got sidetracked

 _Black cat:_ You know what's happening soon right? There's the Match of Gakuen Death Knight Conqueror.

The _Match of Gakuen Death Knight Conqueror_ is the one major event that all Gakuen Ghost Story players look forward to. In order to be eligible to enter the match, players must be a couple and the game matches them up to fight among other paired up couples. If one wins, they move onto the second level and fight the couples who have also reached the second rank and so forth. However, if one fails to climb up the rank, they are immediately out of the contest. Whichever couple places first in the server will be pitted against other pairs who came first in other servers. The winner of all servers will receive a reward so large that would cost several bills of real life money. Due to the reward and the large-scale contest, it has become an event that all players anticipated.

Understanding what he meant, Mikan pondered on what she should do. In her previous marriage, she had coupled up with CelebReo for the sake of couple missions and she wasn't sure if she wanted to do the same thing again.

 _MikiOrange:_ Ah, I see. So that's why you came to look for me?

 _Black cat:_ Hn.

 _MikiOrange:_ Why me though? You can pair up with any female players here.

 _Black cat:_ Because you're the best one out of all of them. I don't settle for anyone and anything less.

 _How arrogant and blunt,_ Mikan thought to herself. She tried to convince herself to agree to the arrangement, although there really was no need for any convincing. As Black cat is the number one player in this server, Mikan is sure to win the contest and get half the reward. And having the top player as an ally can help her enormously to reach the Top 10 list.

 _Top 5 doesn't sound too bad either._

 _MikiOrange:_ Alright, let's do it together.

 _MikiOrange:_ We should head to Hanahime Den now and get married

 _Black cat:_ No, I need to prepare for it. I'll give you the details tomorrow evening

 _MikiOrange:_ Wait, why?

 _Black cat:_ The wedding parade.

 _MikiOrange:_ But all we need is a witness. There's no need for the parade

 _MikiOrange:_ We're only getting together for the match so no need for the fuss

 _MikiOrange:_ Right?

 _Black cat:_ Tch, I told you I don't settle for anything less. My wedding could never be casual.

And with that, Black cat logged off the game leaving Mikan's game counterpart standing under the rather large sakura tree.

-x-

* * *

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	11. Chapter 11

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OC's are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

 _Black cat:_ Tch, I told you I don't settle for anything less. My wedding could never be casual.

Having said that, the ebony haired man let one side of his mouth to quirk upwards slightly and swiftly clicked on the settings option and logged off the game. _Today is a good day_ , he thought to himself. He needed a partner for the world match that is coming soon in the game but he hadn't found a suitable one to match his pace, that is, until today. He only wanted the best female player there is in the Tokyo server, however, _MikiOrange_ was married to _CelebReo_ at the time and down the drain it went of his plan in getting the best player to partner up with him for the contest. So imagine his surprise when the divorce of MikiOrange and CelebReo was announced to the server and because it just so happened at the right timing before the match date is to be announced, he took it as the heavens above gifting him the perfect opportunity to ask her to be his partner. He had asked her out in-game and had expected her to say yes to begin with; the situation was a win-win for both of them in which both benefited greatly from the newfound relationship. To say no would only be foolish.

"Yah, Natsume! Ruka! Kitsuneme!"

Two heads shot up, one blonde and the other of butterscotch color, to find the source of the obnoxiously loud voice who called their names. The black haired male, however, had his gaze remain on his laptop screen, not bothering to even glance up at his friend, who sported a chestnut colored hair, when he came in the dorm room and practically slammed the door behind him.

"Koko, must you be so loud everywhere you go?" Came an exasperated sigh from the blonde bloke.

"Why of course, Ruka! Otherwise I can't make my presence known. A grand king must have a grand entrance!" Koko reasoned.

A snort was heard from the other side of the room, coming from the lad who donned a light brown hair with blonde dimensions. "Shut up, Koko," he said before sitting up from his side of the bunk bed and throwing a sock accurately at said boy's head.

"Oh, yuck!" Koko pinched the piece of clothing article in between his thumb and his forefinger and brought it down from his head to his nose and sniffed it tentatively. Immediately, he reeled back and screeched out loud before scrunching up his nose and throwing the sock back at his roommate. "Kitsuneme, you nasty freak! What's wrong with your feet?!"

This action caused the residents in the room to laugh out loud, even earning a deep chuckle from the black haired man. Kitsuneme caught the sock with ease and brought it up to his nose as well, mimicking what his friend just did.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he declared after sniffing his sock and shrugged nonchalantly. "You're delusional."

"NO," Koko's defensive voice boomed out loud, "Ruka, Natsume, tell him!"

By this time, Ruka's body was shaking uncontrollably from laughter and he held onto his stomach to somehow lower the pain from laughing too hard. Wiping a tear from his left eye, he managed to squeeze out a, "Y-yeah, Koko's right," before doubling over.

Natsume let out another deep chuckle and shook his head lightly, causing his glossy black hair to swing in front of his face and tickle his forehead. He raked his hand through his wild bangs, pushing them back, and gave a slight nod towards Koko.

"You guys are ridiculous," Kitsuneme huffed out after seeing his friends all agree with each other about his supposedly smelly feet.

Recovering from his laughter, Ruka motioned towards Koko, "So what is it?"

"What's what?"

With an exasperated sigh, Ruka clarified, "You were yelling when you came in, so what is it this time?"

"Oh that's right, I have an announcement to make!" Koko clapped his hands to draw the attention to him. "I'll have you guys know that we won't be single for very long!"

Kitsuneme rolled his eyes, "That's what you say all the time."

"Ah but this time it's different," Koko wiggled his eyebrows, "Guess who I ran into? No, don't guess. I'll just tell you, it's Wakako!"

"Wakako Usami?"

"Yep, that's her. And you know what that means…" Koko trailed off, looking at his roommates and pointedly making eye contact with each and every one of them.

When the boy failed to continue his sentence, as if expecting the others to somehow know his thoughts, Ruka spoke up. "Okay so what about her?" The blonde eyed his friend warily from where he was sitting by the large table taking up the spot in the middle of their dorm.

"She's the number one crony of the number one beauty herself, Yuri Akemi," The brown haired boy explained.

Another long pause and a deep voice cut through the room, "Get to the point." Koko sure was taking his sweet time to explain and Natsume did not have the patience to wait for his friend to beat around the bush.

Koko merely rolled his eyes at his friend's lack of patience and clicked his tongue, "Can't a man simply enjoy some story telling?"

"The only storytelling you'll do is of the black eye decorating your face if you don't hurry your ass up!" Kitsuneme barked.

"Gah! You guys are no fun. There's something called suspense, y'know? Are you guys even interested in what happened?"

"Not really," Natsume said, picking on a fluff that he happened to spot on his black sweatshirt. The lad perched on top of his bed nodded in agreement and picked up a playboy magazine and flipped to a random page, his mind already distracted. Ruka, too, played along with his friends and pretended to feign boredom.

"Wooow, some great friends I have. Ha! Okay, I see how it is. Fine." Koko sniffed audibly.

"You should sign up for the drama club, I'm sure they'll gladly accept your over dramatic ass," Kitsuneme piped up from his lazy position, the 18+ magazine still clasped in one of his hands with his hot gaze trained intensely on a scantily clad woman.

"You know what? I'll say no more. Let the curiosity eat you guys up!" The brown haired boy declared and crossed his arms.

"Suit yourself," Natsume let a tiny smirk ghost his lips ever so slightly, finding the teasing to be entertaining and enjoyable, much to Koko's chagrin.

Ruka, being the sweet gentleman that he is, quit his act and encouraged the poor boy who was sulking in front of the door. "Oh Koko, you make it too easy sometimes. Don't let them bother you, tell me what happened."

"Finally! Someone who cares, thank you Ruka!" Said boy only threw his hands up in a show of displeasure towards the other two males. Taking a seat down beside Ruka, he continued on about his abandoned story.

"So, I happened to bump into Wakak- or well, no, more like _she_ bumped into me. Like literally. And her books and pencil bag went flying everywhere. Do you know how long it took me to pick up her books and pencils?" Koko puffed up his cheeks in annoyance, "I had to pick up every single one of her pencils and pens and _she didn't even help_! That's the worst part! She bumped into me and she doesn't even pick up her own things, some spoiled bitch she is."

"Now now, let's not call anyone names," Ruka sweatdropped.

"Her reason was because she was wearing a skirt so she couldn't bend down to pick them up."

"I mean, unless you want her to flash her panties at you," Kitsuneme had a wolfish grin plastered on his face and waggled his eyebrows playfully at the storyteller.

Ignoring him, Koko went on, "So as you all know, I'm a sexy man with lots of talents right?"

When no one responded, the boy answered himself, "That's right! I'm a hot guy. And one would be crazy not to call dibs on me. So anyways, when I finished picking everything up, I see the school beauty herself standing next to Wakako. And she had invited me to her dorm room. See? I don't even have to lift a finger and I had all the ladies coming after me."

Interest now piqued, Kitsuneme jumped down from the top of his bunk bed and joined the rest of his roommates sitting around the table. "Why would someone like _her_ want someone like _you_?" He scoffed.

"Okay okay, so she didn't _exactly_ invite me to her dorm but she did ask me for help to fix her computer. So I just thought I'll come over, fix her stuff and maybe we can have some dinner."

"What's wrong with her computer?" Ruka asked, genuinely curious.

"I think it's the internal memory that broke, not too sure. I'll have to check it out."

"Pft, that's some easy shit," Kitsuneme mocked lightheartedly.

During this whole conversation, Natsume's mind wandered towards a certain red-clad assassin and wondered about the player's true identity. He made a mental note to find out who it was behind the screen.

"Okay but my point is, our single lives can finally end!"

When there was a lack of response to his enthusiasm, Koko muttered bitterly, "Can you guys give me some sort of reaction?"

"Well, what's so great about ending the single life?" The light-brown haired boy spoke up, "I mean, I quite like my single life. No tie downs, no responsibilities. Also, I can have as many girls as I want with no strings attached."

"This is why you guys are all still single! Because of this mentality!" Koko exclaimed.

Kitsuneme merely shrugged, "I mean just ask Natsume, he knows best."

At the mention of his name, the boy looked up and quirked an eyebrow into a perfect arch, "I don't know what you're talking about. Ask Ruka, he's the player here." Successfully shifting the attention off of him, Natsume sat back and regarded his friend's reaction, knowing full well how easily he gets embarrassed.

"W-what!" Ruka sputtered, "Natsume! Why, what. *Sigh* I mean, I've been with few girls yeah..but I'm innocent!"

"Whatever makes you feel better, Ruka." Koko patted his shoulder, looking at him sympathetically.

"At least I get some cha-cha unlike you!" The blonde boy shot back.

" _Cha-cha_?!" Kitsuneme spat out and almost choked on his own saliva.

At the ridiculous nickname that his best friend had adopted for the female reproductive organ, even Natsume couldn't help but howl along with Koko, soon joined by the other brown haired boy as well.

With cheeks tinting pink, Ruka got up and took out a beer for himself from the mini bar fridge that sat conveniently in the corner of their dorm. "Make fun of me all you want but you know it's true."

Koko simply retorted with, "I mean if you're going to put it that way, I sure as hell don't want no cha-cha. But if I had to tango with a lady, know that I'm an _amazing_ dancer."

"Okay, my question remains the same," Kitsuneme interfered before the conversation went into the dark and dangerous territory, "Why would someone like her want someone like you? Even to fix her computer for her?"

"Because I'm hot," the boy stated matter-of-factly. As an afterthought, he added, "Actually, she said we can all come, the whole crew. In fact, she insisted on bringing all of you."

"Hm, I'm down but what if it's not us that she's interested in?" Kitsuneme nodded his head towards the black haired boy sitting across from him. With that statement, all three boys stared at Natsume.

"Listen monkey, we are modest people and should remain so while we're with this guy," Koko pointed a thumb towards Natsume's direction, "We leave the number one beauty for him, we go after her cronies. But I call dibs on anyone BUT Wakako. No way in hell I'm gonna clean up after her again."

"I have a wife now," Natsume interjected.

"WHAT?!" Ruka all but shouted into his best friend's ear, disbelief clearly laced in his voice. At the male's sudden confession, Kitsuneme leaned forward on the table and stared wide-eyed at Natsume, with Koko following the same manner.

"I just got married in the game and as a newly married man who is loyal to his wife, it is inappropriate for me to fix another girl's computer. And enter her room."

"What-"

"But-"

" _How_ -"

All the boys spoke at once and Natsume just cut them off, "Go if you want, I'm not interested anyway."

"Natsume, I'd like to meet the girl who actually melted your icy cold heart." Ruka said, his eyes softening.

"Yeah! Can we PLEASE meet her?" Koko shouted.

"Yeah yeah!" Kitsuneme agreed excitedly, "Ask her to skype or something! I want to see her."

"Ruka, don't look at me like that," Natsume called out, knowing full well what is going on in his best friend's head. "It's not like that."

"Not _yet_ ," the blonde boy asserted.

Natsume could only run a hand through his hair, tousling it. "It's not what you think. I asked her out with full intentions of winning the world match in the game. And I trust her to carry well."

"Blah blah, excuses," Koko snickered, "So who is it anyway? What kind of person is she?"

Natsume merely ignored him, got up from his chair and grabbed a bottle of beer for himself, as well as two more for the two brown haired idiots who are running their mouths off and teasing him. Clinking their beer bottles together, all four chugged down the liquid in their bottles in one go. After the first bottle, the second round took place and when the second bottle was finished, the third round ensued. With this, the conversation of Natsume and his newfound wife was long forgotten and the boys all chatted wildly, without a care in the world.

When several more bottles were consumed and his friends were all in a drunk-like state, Natsume stared off to no one in particular and in a low voice, he answered.

"Only the best."

* * *

-x-

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	12. Author's Note

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ Sorry, this isn't a chapter but I was just wondering if I should move the story to Wattpad? When I write for fanfiction, I do it on my laptop and I don't always have it with me so I don't write as often. But I do have the Wattpad app on my phone and I noticed that I can write using my phone and directly upload chapters from there. Whereas, with the fanfiction website, I have to write on a word document before uploading it to the site. I tried to use the Fanfiction app but it kept shutting down on me for some reason so I gave up trying to use that. And also, I find that the Wattpad app is a lot better and easier to use than the Fanfiction app.

I was just thinking that if I move to Wattpad and you guys follow me there, I can at least try to upload short chapters on a timely basis from my phone. If you guys wish for me to move to Wattpad, please let me know in the reviews. I have Chapter 12 ready and will post to whichever site when I see what majority of you guys pick. Worry not, if the outcome is Wattpad, I'll let you guys know here prior to transferring the story there.

Anyways, I'll see you all in my next update. Have a lovely day!


	13. Author's Note- Decision

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ I sincerely thank those of you who read and reviewed on my previous update. I mentioned about whether I should move the story to Wattpad or not. Not a lot of you guys reviewed but the ones that did seemed fine with it. Some mentioned posting on both Fanfiction and Wattpad and I have considered it.

This is my decision- I will be posting on both sites, but a lot more regularly on Wattpad (from the phone app) rather than on Fanfiction. This is because I will be using my phone to type the story on the Wattpad app feature and I will post the story directly from there. However, when I get the chance to, I will type it out on my laptop, upload it to Fanfiction and then post it. Or I will somehow find a way to transfer files from Wattpad to Fanfiction. One way or the other, it will take much longer for me to post on Fanfiction. I actually wanted to transfer to Wattpad completely but I'm doing this for those of you who only read from Fanfiction so that you guys will still get to read the story, albeit at a lot slower pace.

I know some of you are probably wondering why I can't just write on my laptop. Although I do prefer to write on my laptop rather than tap on the small keyboard on my phone, it's still a lot more easier on me to be on my phone. Because I have my phone with me at all times but not my laptop. I'm always on the go and I'm never at home, so I don't conveniently have my laptop with me like I do with my phone and I really want to get a move on with this story and start writing another one. That and also, I want to be able to at least post short chapters on a timely basis.

To those of you who will be following me to Wattpad, please wait till the next _next_ update for more information. I need to upload all the previous chapters to Wattpad first and I haven't done that yet. I want my account to be all ready and set up before letting you guys know of my username and have you guys start following me or my story. I'm hoping to get it ready by tomorrow so look forward to it.

To clarify, my next update will be chapter 12. And the one following that will be information about my Wattpad account.

I know this may be hard to swallow for some of you who only read from Fanfiction but thank you lovelies for always being so understanding of me. Please continue to support me on my decision and this story as well. As always, I'll see you in my next update ^-^


	14. Chapter 12

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

Mikan was running through the lobby of her dormitory in a frenzy, her breathing coming out harsh and uneven. Knowing very well that the elevator takes forever, she ran right past the lift where a crowd of female students waited, and pushed through the emergency exit next to it where long flights of stairs awaited her.

As Mikan passed the other students by the elevator, she had caught them giving her odd looks, not that she could blame them; she currently looked like a tomato-frazzled mess with her hair flying wildly about her in disarray. She bounded up the stairs with urgency, skipping few steps at a time, and let out a mild curse under her breath when she noted the time on her wrist watch. Wishing her legs were capable of even longer leaps to take her to her destination, she desperately willed her legs to move faster.

Arriving at the fourth floor, Mikan hurled herself at the emergency exit and shoved at the doors, successfully opening them wide for her body to push through and onto the hallway of her dorm. Straining her leg muscles, she gave a last spurt of energy and sprinted down the corridor only to body slam the door of the room that she shared with her two best friends. Mikan wasted no time to pull out the room key from her jean pocket and hastily jammed it inside the keyhole, wiggling it recklessly.

Once inside, the brunette flung her bag carelessly onto her bottom of the bunk bed and catapulted straight towards her laptop that laid on the large table sitting in the middle of the room. Mikan powered on the laptop and logged in to _Gakuen Ghost Story_ and immediately, her eyes flew towards the message icon on the bottom right of her screen. Dread filled her when she noticed a tiny yellow circle hovering above the icon and she knew immediately that she had an unopened message waiting for her.

Clicking it open, her expression lifted at what she saw on her notification panel and she let out a sigh of relief. There was not one but two messages waiting for her, one from SeaweedPermzand the other from her guild, Tokyo Reign. But none from _him_.

The day before was the day Black cat had proposed to Mikan and she had accepted it. That same day, near midnight, Mikan had logged back into the game and saw that she had received a message from Black cat. He had her know to meet up with him the next evening at the large sakura tree where they first met to complete a quest together.

Mikan was running late in meeting up with her newfound online husband because her last class had extended longer than she had expected, hence, the reason why she ran like a panicked squirrel all through campus and to her dorm.

She feared a possible backlash from Black cat and was beyond relieved to see that he hadn't spammed her inbox for being late, something that CelebReo had a knack for doing. Although CelebReo never did get angry at her for being late the few times that she had been, he would however fill up her mailbox with messages asking for her whereabouts and why she wasn't at the meeting spot.

Chest no longer heaving from exhaustion and breathing now back to normal, Mikan hastily set the pathway for her game character to head towards the sakura tree at Central Town, the meeting place that Black cat had informed her of, and left the female assassin to run there on her own.

* * *

-In Game Life-

Upon reaching her destination, MikiOrange felt her nerves bunch up at the sight of Black cat sitting at the base of the tree, eyes closed and with his back resting against the trunk. Although she felt nervous, she somehow found herself staring at him longer than she should have; the man's physical attributes looking insanely attractive. From his languid pose to his black clothes to his armors to his facial features and to his large and dangerous looking saber that rested beside him. Everything about him screamed a very hot and sexy _Duskblade_.

 _Duskblade_ \- a class with a similar build to that of an assassin, but very much different apart. They are from the shadows of the night with the background of the Nightshade race. _The guardians of the Divine Holy Spirit_. Characters like Black cat are dangerous as they cause massive bloodshed with their mighty saber, making any battle deadly with their speed and surreptitiousness. Not only are they highly skilled in paralyzing and disarming their enemies, they also have the ability to copy their targets' skills only when in combat mode with said target.

MikiOrange has no doubt that her husband or rather, her _fianc_ _é_ , since they hadn't officially gotten married at the Hanahime Den yet, had built himself with strength up to about 150 and all the rest in dexterity just as she had done so for herself. She was jolted out of her thoughts when she heard unbearably loud giggles coming from a group of female players, their forms just few meters away from the tree where the duo rested at.

 _Ah, of course._ MikiOrange thought amusedly, she herself was no different from them when it came to being attracted to the very master of the game himself. Her thoughts drifted once again to the black-clad male, wondering how he looked like in real life and if the person behind the screen also have females pining after him from every corner just like his game counterpart does. Before she let her mind wander too deep into _actual_ reality, she rid herself of those thoughts and laid her eyes back onto the male. The man truly was a work of art, MikiOrange sighed blissfully.

"Take a picture, won't you? It'll last longer." A deep voice cut through, amidst the shrill voices of the group of women present.

Shocked out of her mind, MikiOrange's eyes widened by a large fraction at what she heard. And her cheeks flushed a furious red out of embarrassment when Black cat slowly blinked his eyes open and quirked an eyebrow at her.

"I-I..."

Knowing full well she got caught staring, MikiOrange fumbled with her words and struggled to form a coherent sentence.

 _Dang it, Miki. You're so lame._

Mentally slapping herself, MikiOrange couldn't help but think at how lame she was being at the moment.

"Should we get going?" Black cat stood up, picking up his weapon along with him and storing it in its sheath that hung over his back.

"A-ah, yes," MikiOrange stuttered, cursing herself internally for coming out weak. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, determined to make the weird feelings go away.

"I'm sorry if I creeped you out earlier, I didn't mean to stare…" The assassin's words trailed off at the end.

"So what was it then?" Was the response.

"I just got lost in my thoughts," MikiOrange replied truthfully, albeit hiding away the details of what she was thinking about.

"Hn." Black cat didn't question any further and the assassin couldn't be more thankful.

They were walking about, to where MikiOrange did not know. Her partner lead the way silently. So she followed silently.

When the peaceful stroll neared the outskirts of Central Town, Black cat interrupted the quiet air that settled between them. Fishing out a small item from his pocket, he barely waved it once in front of his partner to catch her attention and muttered out a, "Read it." Not one to be gentle, he practically threw the object at her without waiting for a reaction, not caring whether or not she saw the item, much less whether she was ready to catch said item. But ready she was, catching it nimbly between her fingers by reflex right before it hit her face. She _is_ an assassin after all.

"What was that for?" MikiOrange grumbled under her breath, sending stink eyes to the black haired male next to her and making sure he caught the looks she sent his way.

The man didn't even bat an eyelash. This only got under MikiOrange's skin and he knew it. Knowing that she wasn't about to get an apology out of her partner, she turned her attention to the small object in her hands. The item revealing to be a quest scroll, the quest that Black cat mentioned the night before.

Slowing her pace, MikiOrange rolled open the scroll and skimmed through the contents, nodding once to herself in understanding. Noticing that Black cat was few ways ahead of her, no intention in mind to slow his pace down for her, she rolled the paper back into its place and aimed for the back of his head. Without even looking back, the man simply reached a hand out behind him and caught the quest scroll easily.

MikiOrange let out a mild curse at him and he further provoked her by twirling the object in between his fingers, his hand still at the back of his head.

"Curse you and your natural instincts," MikiOrange muttered bitterly.

"You know what else is another natural instinct of mine?"

All too suddenly, he was right in front of her and MikiOrange held her breath at the amount of space in between their faces, or rather, the _lack of_. If she were to tilt her face up the slightest bit, their noses would be touching. Holding onto few strands of her hair, Black cat pulled on it teasingly and smirked in a way that made MikiOrange feel all kinds of things.

When he pulled again a bit harder, MikiOrange teetered forward and she placed both hands on his chest to balance herself and also to put some distance between their bodies. But this action only made Black cat lose his hold of her hair but now onto her chin.

"W-what do you think you're doing?" Although MikiOrange was flustered at the closeness and her face currently sported a deep fuschia red, she kept her glare steady. Her cheeks felt hot and she could practically hear her heartbeat go ham in her chest.

Black cat merely snaked his other arm around her waist, keeping her from moving away, and dipped his head down towards her face. MikiOrange knew where this was going and she tucked her chin in and pressed her lips into a thin line, not wanting him to proceed with what she knew was coming. When his eyes dropped to stare at her lips and he tilted his head, she closed her eyes subconsciously, feeling scared and shocked at what was to come in the next second. But amidst the negative feelings, she also felt a little bit of anticipation mixed in.

What he does next bewilders her completely.

* * *

-x-

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please leave a review and follow as well ^-^ I'll see you in my next update


	15. Author's Note- Wattpad Information

Hello all, it's Dina here ^-^

I have my Wattpad account all ready and set up! My username is Dinasauuur. You can search for me manually or copy and paste the link:

user/Dinasauuur

I've posted an author note in the beginning of my story so please do take your time and read it! Also, to the readers who doesn't have Wattpad, I think you have to make an account (?) before being able to read any stories.

I've also written a little about myself on my profile under "About" so if you can let me know a little bit of yourself as well, I'd really appreciate it c: You can go to "Conversations" right next to "About" and post there. I also want to get to know who my readers are so don't feel shy!

You can also post any questions you have or anything really and I'll be sure to interact with you all there.

Be sure to follow me to stay updated and also to vote and comment on the story! As always, thank you lovelies for your understanding and patience, I'll see you all in my next update.

Edit: I don't know why the link isn't showing. I think there is a restriction on adding links but basically, type this in your address bar and it should take you directly to my page.

"www." "wattpad" ".com" "/user/Dinasauuur"


	16. Chapter 13

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

"You're mad at me."

MikiOrange ignored the statement and continued to slash away at the enemies with her dual blades.

Was she mad at Black cat for what he had done? _Not at all. Nope._

While in denial, MikiOrange suffered a searing pain on her shoulder when one of the large coconuts rolled its way towards her and spat out liquid that is supposed to resemble coconut juice at her. Upon contact, the cloth surrounding her shoulder dissolved almost immediately and her skin burned in immense pain.

 _Poison. Just my luck._

MikiOrange cursed her luck and danced around a dozen of similar giant coconuts rolling all over the battlefield. Their size approximately four times larger than her. A quick glance at her partner told her that he, too, was dodging past several of the coconuts and their constant spitting. Those coconuts may look like cute and easy targets but she knew better; any quests involving them proved to be difficult even for someone as high leveled as her.

Being a squishy character and entering the coconut zone was possibly the most miscalculated thing that she had done. With her already low health as an assassin, jumping straight into the line of hundreds of poisonous spitting coconuts was a big mistake on her part, as well as her partner's for choosing her to do the quest together.

 _It's all his fault. If it wasn't for him, I would've been more careful._

Ignoring the blood and the excruciating pain on her shoulder blade, MikiOrange pushed through to another crowd of coconuts and swung her dual blades around her, calling forth her magic to add more damage.

Cutting them all successfully in half, white light swirled around their bodies and they shimmered for a second before shattering into tiny pieces and vanished entirely.

 _Another eight down. Few hundred more to go._

"You're mad at me," Black cat blandly stated again.

MikiOrange paused mid-dash and looked over at him. "I'm not," she answered, teeth clenched and jaw tight.

"You are." Black cat easily maneuvered his way around the field, his saber a constant blur of movements.

"You're mad I didn't kiss you."

* * *

-Flashback-

 _Black cat merely snaked his other arm around her waist, keeping her from moving away, and dipped his head down towards her face. MikiOrange knew where this was going and she tucked her chin in and pressed her lips into a thin line, not wanting him to proceed with what she knew was coming. When his eyes dropped to stare at her lips and he tilted his head, she closed her eyes subconsciously, feeling scared and shocked at what was to come in the next second. But amidst the negative feelings, she also felt a little bit of anticipation mixed in._

 _What he does next bewilders her completely._

 _She had expected to feel something against her lips but instead, her mouth parted and she let out an audible gasp when she felt a warm gust of air being blown at her ear._

 _MikiOrange's breath hitched in her throat and her eyes flew open only to find Black cat's onyx ones staring at her few distance away, amusement swimming in the depts of his eyes._

 _"W-wha..?"_

 _As her fingers immediately came up to soothe her harassed ear, she simultaneously felt blood rush up her neck, making its way to her cheeks and eventually to the tips of her ears. She was embarrassed. Surely the look on her face must have been priceless for the male._

 _ **He's messing with me.**_

 _Black cat couldn't help but smirk at her reaction. She was too fun and easy to mess with._ _So he decided to play with her a little, just a little tease to elicit a reaction that was indeed satisfactory._

 _"What do you think you're doing?!" MikiOrange screeched out, her fingers still cupping her now sensitive ear._

 _"M-my ear! How could you?!"_

 _"So your lips are fine but not your ears?" He questioned haughtily._

 _"Don't put words in my mouth!" MikiOrange screeched yet again._

 _Black cat furrowed his brows slightly at her loudness, she might as well have yelled directly into his ears and it still wouldn't have made a difference._

 _"You didn't move away for the kiss," he pointed out._

 _At his statement, MikiOrange_ _blushed yet again._

 _"T-that's different!" Her words came out in a stutter._

 _"How so?"_

 _"I was vulnerable and you took advantage of me." Finding her courage, she pushed the words out through her teeth, challenging him to say otherwise._

 _Black cat simply scoffed at her._

 _"Says the ruthless, female killing machine of this server."_

 _MikiOrange's face paled and contorted into one of displeasure at what her partner said._

 _"I am not!"_

 _"Ask anyone," he countered._

 _"But I'm not," she denied firmly and pushed past him to continue on their path. "I like to think that I'm Asuna - a knight in shining armor who does good in this world."_

 _Black cat only rolled his eyes at her reference._

 _"If anything, you're the ruthless killing machine of this game - just like Kirito."_

 _"I know," he said, admitting to the title easily._

 _MikiOrange whipped her head his way, "Then why'd you say I'm the ruthless killing ma-"_

 _"Female," he cut her off._

 _"What?" Her head tipped to the side in confusion._

 _Sighing, he clarified for her. "I said you're the female one of this server."_

 _MikiOrange scrunched her nose cutely, not liking the label he placed on her._

 _"I don't like being called that," she spoke her thoughts out loud._

 _"Too bad, you're with me now." He deadpanned._

 _MikiOrange knew what he meant. Now that the number one male and female player of the server got together, they would be known as the Tokyo server's power couple. Although she still wouldn't call herself a ruthless killing machine, she has no doubt that her partner fits the label perfectly. And because he does so, she's also associated with the title simply because she was his partner now._

 _"Okay whatever, the point is you took advantage of me!" MikiOrange reminded him of the crime he had committed minutes ago, her anger and embarrassment resurfacing from the memory._

-End of Flashback-

* * *

"I'm not." MikiOrange stated firmly, crossing her arms and pressing her mouth into a thin line.

"Why would I be ma-"

 _"Watch it."_

MikiOrange's words were cut off as she felt her body being yanked to the side, her head crashing into a broad chest and a large hand held onto the back of her head, pressing her into the security of muscular arms.

The brunette's eyes widened at the sudden closeness and she poked her head out, about to scream bloody murder when she saw a _ginormous_ three-headed coconut zoom right past where she was standing just half a second ago.

 _The boss._

Black cat grunted when he felt sharp pain on his back and without wasting another second, he casted a defence spell around them, runes creating a bubble-like shield that protected them from harm's way. The bubble causing the coconuts to bounce far away when they came into contact with the runes.

MikiOrange was so zoned out that she hadn't even realized the boss dropped down from its tree. Her mind distracting her from the boss' oncoming attack on her.

Black cat saw the whole scene unfold before him. Although he had continued attacking his enemies, his curious gaze was laid on her still form in the middle of the bloody battlefield. He looked on in amusement as the assassin's eyes seemed to be glaring at nothing in particular and her face constantly contorting to different emotions.

During this observation was when he caught sight of the three-headed coconut dropping down from its position on the biggest tree and barreling towards the red clad woman in a speed that was unparalleled to any other monster.

When he realized that his partner had no intention in mind to step out of the way and could have practically begged for death to come knocking on her door, he took it upon his own hands to rescue his sorry ass of a partner.

Black cat had dashed to her immediately, reaching her side in the nick of time and grabbed her by the shoulders, twirling the both of them around so that his back was facing towards the boss. So that his back was the one being grazed by the boss when it rolled its way past the couple and not her.

He lightly tapped on the back of her neck to get her attention on him. His breathing was harsh, his chest rising up and down heavily and MikiOrange could feel every muscle contracting from the movements he made where her face rested at.

"T-thank you.." MikiOrange breathed out shakily, her eyes coming up to meet Black cat's intense ones.

" _Pay attention_. I didn't ask you to be my partner for you to die on me on our first mission together."

MikiOrange visibly winced at his words. Although they were harsh, his tone was gentle and his eyes softened ever so slightly at the look on her face. He almost seemed caring for a second but his demeanor changed in an instant, the intensity returning to his eyes.

All of a sudden, he grabbed her face in both his hands and tugged her forward forcefully, smacking a firm kiss on her forehead.

"This should do for now," he spoke against her skin. "Stop getting distracted about the kiss, you can't be mad at me anymore."

With that, Black cat let go of her and turned around swiftly, right on time to bring his saber up to stop another oncoming attack from the boss and its minions. The protective runes had disappeared, already having run past its time limit.

MikiOrange stood frozen in her spot, her fingers coming up to lightly brush the area that her fiancé's lips had come in contact with.

Her face flushed a deep red for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day.

Her heart pounded against her rib cage, the sound defeaning in her own ears. She didn't like how her heart beat for him at this particular moment, she didn't like how he made her feel weak, she didn't like how he made her knees go soft and jelly-like. _She didn't like what he had done to her._

And for the first time ever, she felt vulnerable in front of someone.

* * *

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, be sure to leave a review and follow as well ^-^ it motivates me to write knowing that you guys are interested. As always, I'll see you in my next update!


	17. Chapter 14

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

I've announced this in my Wattpad account and I'll say it here as well- I've been swamped with school work (still am) and my finals begin real soon. I have a week of holiday after April 28th and I'll try to write as many chapters as possible during that time before my new semester starts. Also, I must let you know that my schedule next semester is insane T.T I barely get sleep now as is and this is only the beginning for me.

Also, I actually uploaded this chapter on Wattpad few weeks back but haven't the time to upload it on FanFiction. Go read there if you wish to, I do upload there much faster than I do on this site. This one is dedicated to Wind of SilentBell for always being so so supportive of me ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

-IRL-

"Finally," Mikan sighed out and cracked her knuckles.

She had just landed the final blow on the boss and her partner, Black cat, was currently on his way back to report the successful mission to the individual who put the quest up.

 _Black cat:_ Good work.

 _MikiOrange:_ Thanks~

Upon glancing at her online partner, the memory from fifteen minutes ago resurfaced and she felt her face warm up. It had surprised her when he suddenly kissed her game counterpart on the forehead.

Mikan tenderly placed a hand against her own forehead and wondered what it would feel like to be kissed by a lover.

It's true the brunette had no experience in the love department. Although she had few crushes in elementary and high school, however, those feelings never blossomed into anything deeper and they never led to a relationship.

She hadn't the chance to experience her first kiss or to hold hands with someone and she's already in post secondary school. Holding hands with Anna and Nonoko doesn't count.

Mikan carded a hand through her hair and sighed out again. Sometimes she wondered when her turn would come. Even Nonoko seemed to be in a relationship and although the blue haired girl hadn't mentioned anything yet, the roommates could smell something fishy going on. What with her dressing up all the time and then secretly heading out, only to come back to the dorm late at night with messy hair and wrinkled clothes. And when the girls questioned her whereabouts, her face would turn a bright tomato and she would scurry off to the bathroom without a word.

Mikan was drawn out of her thoughts when a _ping!_ sounded. It hadn't been long and Black cat already returned to her side.

 _Black cat:_ You can have half the reward.

 _MikiOrange:_ oh no no no no, I'm fine

 _MikiOrange:_ Thanks tho

 _Black cat:_ K, heal yourself. We're going on another mission.

The brunette looked at the clock hanging on top of Anna's study desk and noted the time. Her homework could wait.

 _MikiOrange:_ alrighty, I've got time

She had her character follow Black cat to a nearby town and then to the city hall. She watched the duskblade skim through the quest board and then promptly rip a page out.

 _MikiOrange:_ Where are we going?

 _Black cat:_ Just past the coconut field.

 _MikiOrange:_ aw man, we have to head back the same way?

 _Black cat:_ Hn.

 _MikiOrange:_ k...race ya!

* * *

-In Game Life-

"'kay...race ya!"

With that said, MikiOrange dashed forward, not sparing a second to look back.

"You're too slow."

MikiOrange whipped her head to the side to look at where the voice came from and saw Black cat right next to her, matching her speed effortlessly.

It definitely came as a shock that someone was able to catch up to her but at the same time, it was also no shocker that her partner was able to do so easily.

"What, I'm not slow. You're slow!"

To prove her point, MikiOrange sped up by tenfold, adding some magic to aid her in the race.

"Show me some speed, slowpoke." Black cat chuckled, right next to her again.

The assassin grit her teeth and ran even faster, her hair whipping at her face and around her wildly. A quick look back told her that her partner was falling behind and she let out a large grin.

"The end point is right before the battlefield we were at earlier!" She yelled out behind her. "See ya sucker!"

Not a minute later, MikiOrange could see the battlefield just few ways ahead of her.

 _I'm so winning this, no one can beat me in a race._

Just as she was about to reach the finish line, also known as the strip of dirt at the entrance of the battlefield, MikiOrange felt a _whoosh_ and saw a flicker of shadow pass by her.

Blinking in surprise, she slowed to a stop and allowed herself to collapse on the ground, her knees coming together with her legs pointing outwards.

"What just happened?" MikiOrange asked out loud in disbelief and her shoulders caved in just as she felt her body begin to wilt from losing so poorly.

"I dusted your ass, that's what's happened." Black cat stated cockily.

"But _how_?" MikiOrange shook her head, still unable to process the situation. "I'm the best at speed, no one has ever beat me before."

"There's a first for everything and this is yours." Black cat said dryly and held his hand out for her to take.

"Come on, the place isn't too far from here."

"But I don't understand!" MikiOrange whined and slapped his hand away. She pushed herself up and indicated for him to lead the way.

"I won, you lost. It's not that hard to get."

"Oh shut it!" MikiOrange scowled, "And wipe that smug look off your face!"

She didn't mean to act like a sore loser but she couldn't help but feel like one. He was totally playing with her and she knew that he knew that she knew, which only added salt to the wound. Who could blame her for being salty when all he did was sprinkle more salt by being his cocky self.

She pouted adorably and stomped like a child, the action coming off very cute to bystanders and also to her partner, not that he'd ever say it out loud.

MikiOrange kept up with her grumblings of unfairness and cheating all the way to the new battlefield. Her whining and constant muttering did not cease during the fight and even after the fight, which only annoyed the crap out of her partner.

About to lose his patience, Black cat turned towards her and met her gaze fiercely.

"Shut up or I'll kiss you."

Not having to be told twice, MikiOrange shut up at his words, but not before sticking her tongue out at him childishly.

* * *

-IRL-

Mikan and Black cat had finished their second quest together and they were headed back towards Central Town when a party request box popped up on her screen.

 **Black cat sent an invitation for you to join a party.**

She furrowed her brows in confusion.

 _Wha?_

Typing on her keyboard gingerly, Mikan sent a _whisper_ message to the duskblade.

 _MikiOrange:_ what's that for?

 _Black cat:_ Just accept it.

Doing as he said, Mikan accepted the request and entered a _party_ chatroom that included him and three other players.

 **MikiOrange joined the party.**

The system announced in the chatroom.

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ well well wellll

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ look who we've got here~

Mikan saw three figures heading towards her and Black cat and she stopped her character from moving any further when her partner stopped walking after meeting the three players halfway.

They seemed familiar but at the same time, she couldn't place her finger on the three usernames displayed above their heads.

 _IKnowAllYourSecret_ s _:_ monkey u see dis bruh

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ if it isn't Mr. Number One with Ms. Number One

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe_ : y's that hmmm

 _IKnowAllYourSecret_ s: i smell something fishy

 _Animal-Lover:_ Sorry, ignore them :) I'm Animal Lover

 _Animal-Lover:_ You must be Black cat's fiancée, it's nice to meet you

Mikan started coughing and she pounded a fist against her chest to somehow make it stop. When it didn't and tears sprung to her eyes, she ran to the mini fridge and got a bottled water for herself. Delicately taking a sip, she coughed some more and wiped at her eyes.

"Honey, you okay there?" Nonoko poked her head out of the bathroom, concern laced on her features.

"Y-no..I mean-" Mikan wheezed out and took another sip of water.

Nonoko's eyes flashed with worry and she came out of the bathroom, revealing a cute yellow sundress.

"I'm fine," the brunette finished her sentence after calming down.

"You sure?"

Mikan nodded her head and went back to her laptop. She didn't mean to overreact but knowing that she was Black cat's fiancée was one thing and having someone say it out loud was something entirely different. So yes, her choking on her own spit was justified.

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ man u just made it weird. y so formal tf

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ dude, u gon scare her

 _Animal-Lover:_ Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for that to come out weird

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ yup, u totally scared her away

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ she ain't responding

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ man u just had to

 _Animal-Lover:_ ;-; I didn't mean for this to happen

 _Animal-Lover:_ Black cat, tell your fiancée to come back T_T

 _Black cat:_...

 _MikiOrange:_ Sry for the late response, I went to get some H2O

 _MikiOrange:_ And nice to meet you too, Animal lover c: I'm MikiOrange

 _MikiOrange:_ you can call me Miki

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ we know who u r, ms number one

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ and we also know all ur secrets ;)

 _MikiO_ range: I'm sorry, what?

 _Animal-Lover:_ No, we don't

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ well i do but dw i won't tell

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ he's crazy, don't listen to him

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ oh shut it monkey, ur just jealous i can read minds

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ or u know, ur just a psychopath

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ do u want me to expose u?

 _Animal-Lover:_ =.= Can you guys not do this right now?

 _Animal-Lover:_ Introduce yourselves first!

 _MikiOrange:_ ah no noooe, there's no need lol

 _MikiOrange:_ are you guys Black cat's friends?

 _Black cat:_ No, they're just my teammates.

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ ouch

 _MikiOrange:_ oooooo shots fired :o

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ after everything we've been thru u mofo how dare u :0

 _Animal-Lover:_ This is getting messy lol

 _Animal-Lover:_ To answer your question, yes, we're his friends and roommates

 _MikiOrange:_ roommates? You guys live together?

 _Black cat_ : Yes and it's a nuisance.

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ pshhh he totally loves us

 _Black cat:_ Disgusting.

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeM_ e _:_ LOLOL

 _Animal-Lover:_ You don't know us, do you?

 _MikiOrange:_ ahaha I'm trying to remember

 _MikiOrange:_ you guys seem familiar, was it ken? Keno something?

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ of course she only knows black cat .

 _MikiOrange:_ uwahh I'm sorry!

Mikan knew of Black cat's team, just that they were well known in the server. However, she didn't know the members exactly so their usernames never did light up a bulb in her head.

 _Animal-Lover:_ You're close

 _Animal-Lover:_ It's Kikennōryoku-kei

 _MikiOrange:_ ooh~ sounds fancy

 _MikiOrange:_ what's that

 _Black cat:_ Dangerous class.

 _MikiOrange:_ dangerous class? why's that?

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ courtesy of na-

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ shit

 _MikiOrange:_ Na?

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeM_ e _:_ LMAO XDDD

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ nowaitwlkmd

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ fORgiv

 **IKnowAllYourSecrets is removed from the party.** The system announced.

 _MikiOrange:_ uh

 _MikiOrange:_?

 _Animal-Lover:_ Oh my goodness -.-"

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ holy shit, this is too funny

 _MikiOrange:_ wait, what happened to the secret guy

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ he's dying rn, miki LOOOOOL X'D

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ i'm fucking dead

 _MikiOrange:_ should I be concerned? :o

 _Black cat:_ Don't waste your breath.

 _MikiOrange:_ um, okay? I'm so confused

 _Animal-Lover:_ Miki, to answer you- our guild is known as the dangerous class in a nutshell

 _Animal-Lover:_ Purely because of Black cat so that's how our name came to be

 _MikiOrange:_ right, of course. He IS pretty dangerous huh

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ the whole team pretty much is, we may not look like it but we're good supports

 _MikiOrange:_ I wouldn't doubt that :)

 _Animal-Lover:_ Alright, I'm adding him back

 **IKnowAllYourSecrets joined the party.**

 _MikiOrange:_ what happened? are you okay?

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ u dont wanna know

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ i went through hell and back T^T

 _MikiOrange:_ aww you poor baby

 **IKnowAllYourSecrets is removed from the party.**

Mikan's eyes widened, she was so confused. What was going on?

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO im ded i cant im so dedddddddd

 _MikiOrange:_ what is it this time?

 _Animal-Lover:_ *face palm*

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ IM DYINGGGGGGG

 _Animal-Lover:_ I sense the color green. Dark green, to be precise.

 _MikiOrange:_ I'm sorry?

 _Black cat:_ Apology accepted.

 _MikiOrange:_ wha?

 _MikiOrange:_ I meant to say excuse me.

 _Black cat:_ You're excused.

 _MikiOrange:_ ugh no, that's not what I meant .

 _MikiOrange:_ can someone _please_ tell me what's going on?

Mikan pressed on, she felt so out of the conversation and she wanted in. Her curiosity and patience was eating away as they continued to leave her out of the loop.

 _Animal-Lover:_ Sorry Miki, it's really nothing. They're just being idiots -.- the both of them.

 _Black cat:_ Who are you calling an idiot?

 _Animal-Lover:_ Omgg stop this already ;-; this is seriously so messy

 _Animal-Lover:_ Miki must have such a bad impression of us now

 _MikiOrange:_ actually you guys are funny :D I like you guys

 _Animal-Lover:_ Oh! Good good lol

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ oh rightt, whens the wedding parade happening

Mikan stayed silent as she herself didn't know the wedding plan, Black cat hadn't brought it up to her yet.

 _Black cat:_ Soon, will let you know. Miki, I'll give you the details in private first.

 _MikiOrange:_ okie

Mikan smiled to herself, she was having a genuinely pleasant time conversing with the boys. Although she was confused here and there but overall, they made her laugh and she decided she liked these guys.

Her eyes traveled back to the clock hanging above Anna's desk and she felt immediate dread wash over her.

 _Where did the time go?_

 _MikiOrange:_ hey, I actually have to go

Mikan sent a _whisper_ message to Black cat.

 _MikiOrange:_ I had a good time talking with your friends, maybe we can chat more tmr?

 _Black cat:_ Sure.

 _MikiOrange:_ can you let me know about the wedding details while I'm gone? :$ I'm gonna log

off for a bit to finish a paper.

 _Black cat:_ Yeah, talk to you later.

Mikan bid the group chat good bye and they complained about not having the chance to get to know her. They let her go only after she promised to share some details about herself the next time they talked.

She logged off the game and opened up the Skype app on her laptop. She clicked open a chatroom titled "Powerpuff Girls" and sent an emergency message.

 _Mikan:_ Hotaru! Permz! We need to talk. Like tomorrow.

 _Sumire:_ ooooo new gossip?

 _Mikan:_ no

 _Mikan:_ wellll yes, it CAN be

 _Sumire:_ oo I wanna know rn!

 _Mikan:_ no no not rn, I need to finish my essay paper

 _Hotaru:_ Ugh, what is it this time?

 _Mikan:_ it's really important

 _Sumire_ : cant you just say it noww?

 _Mikan:_ but I want to let you guys know face to face!

 _Sumire:_ fine what time tmr

 _Mikan:_ my last class ends at 4pm, I'll see you guys then

 _Hotaru:_ This better be worth it.

 _Mikan:_ oh trust me, you'll want to know this one!

 _Mikan:_ okok I'm gonna go now, byee~

 _Sumire:_ bye girlie

 _Hotaru:_ Bye.

With that, Mikan closed the app and pulled up her assignment, the blankness of the pages staring right back at her. She let out a somber sigh and started on her work.

"Mikan, I'm off!" Nonoko suddenly called out, her form already by the door.

"Where are you headed to? You're all dressed up." Mikan remarked and gave her roommate a quizzical look.

"Nowhere~" Her roommate sanged out. "Just y'know...the library~"

Mikan gave her an incredulous look. "I have a nose and I can smell bullshit from a mile away!"

The girl merely squeaked and ran away, her melodious laugh following her. The brunette narrowed her eyes at her suspicious best friend who just slammed the door behind her. She had a feeling that the blue haired girl was seeing someone- no, she was _sure_ that she was seeing someone.

Mikan just shook her head lightly and trained her gaze back onto the papers in front of her.

 _She's being such a fish._

* * *

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, be sure to leave a review and follow as well ^-^ it motivates me to write knowing that you guys are interested. As always, I'll see you in my next update.


	18. Chapter 15

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

"Okay, spill all the deets girlie! Right now!" A high-pitched voice sounded through the laptop.

Mikan reached into her bag and fished out her trusty headphones and after plugging the jack in, she slid them onto her head.

"Okay okay, just wait," the brunette called out and shuffled herself further into the safety and warmth of her blankets.

"Noo, I can't! You're taking too long!" The voice whined.

"I just got back," Mikan huffed out, "I didn't even turn on the webcam yet!"

"So hurry and turn it on, I already have mine on!" The voice, too, huffed out impatiently.

And indeed the other person's webcam was on, revealing a young adult donning a shoulder length dark green hair with several distinctive long, curly strands framing her face.

Mikan clicked on the camera button and a small screen of her popped up next to the large frame of her friend.

"Oh! Mikaaan! You look soo pretty as always!"

"Permz!" Said girl cried out, "You look lovely yourself, I missed you!"

The girl indeed looked beautiful, especially her eyes- she had long, dramatic eyelashes hovering above bright olive eyes that had specks of brown and yellow peppered all over them that gave her a seductive appearance, which only added onto her already sultry outlook.

"I missed you moooreee!" The girl in the screen giggled.

Mikan was about to ask where Hotaru was when the screen split in half and another frame of a short haired girl appeared next to the both of them, joining the duo in the group call.

"Mikan, Sumire," a soft yet firm voice greeted them, the sound coming from the new person in the group video chat.

"Hootaaruuuuu!" Both girls squealed out of excitement. The trio was finally seeing each other again and they couldn't contain their happiness.

Hotaru herself couldn't help but let a smile grace her elegant features, happiness also evident in the look she gave the other two girls.

Her bangs were much longer now, Mikan noted, which framed her tiny face prettily. Her eyes, just like Sumire's, never failed to mesmerize the brunette. Her eyes were of misty grey color with hints of faint lilac splashed over them that boosts the enigmatic aura that she has created around herself.

"It's really so good to see you two!" Mikan flashed a genuine smile their way, "For real, I couldn't be happier right now."

"Same girl, same." Sumire sighed blissfully. "And if you must know, I've been doing great and I just got my mani and pedi done! Wanna see?"

The green haired girl then proceeded to lift her fingers and toes up to fit within her camera frame and wiggled them, showing off the french tips on all her finger _and_ toe nails.

"Ah, I see them alright." Mikan giggled at her friend's actions. "They did a fabulous job on your nails!"

Hotaru, on the other hand, wasn't too pleased to see someone's feet plastered on her large computer screen. She showed her distaste by rolling her eyes and telling the girl to put her feet down.

"What, they're clean!" Sumire asserted, "You just don't know how to appreciate and love your toenails."

"But glad to know you're still the same as always, Hotaru. How are you?" She continued.

"Good, I just finalized some paperworks and now there is a cottage by Miyako Island added to my assets." Hotaru answered in a business like tone.

Mikan's jaw dropped open, "No way, a cottage _there_?"

Miyako Island, the fourth largest island in Okinawa prefecture, is known for having some of the best beaches in Japan that are wonderfully picturesque. The beautiful white sand beaches there are good for swimming and sunbathing, and especially snorkeling through the colorful coral reefs.

Several resorts reside by the island, surrounded by large and fancy cottages and beach houses. Only the rich were able to afford the entire place, otherwise, most people just rent one of the houses for the duration of their stay there.

"Yes, Miki," Hotaru held up a folder with 'Miyako Island beach house #2' plastered across the paper in large font for the two girls to see.

After taking a dainty sip of her tea in an expensive looking china cup, she added, "We'll go there for summer vacation."

Mikan might as well have drooled over that statement. Catching Sumire's eyes across the screen, both girls squealed once more and thanked Hotaru for her offer.

However, the happy moment was cut short when the short haired girl interrupted them.

"So Miki, care to tell us why you wanted to talk to us? Perhaps you would like to mention about a certain...number one player?" Her eyes gleamed in suspicion as she questioned her bubbly friend.

Mikan felt the tips of her ears starting to heat up, her tell tale sign of being embarrassed, and travel across to her cheeks.

"Wait, how-" She started but stopped herself. "Nevermind."

 _Of course she would know. Hotaru knows everything._

"What? What number one?" Came Sumire's curiosity.

"I wanted to tell you guys in person that...Black cat asked to couple up with me in the game." Mikan confessed.

She looked at the screen to gauge her friends' reactions, to which Sumire looked shocked and Hotaru looked satisfied.

"What?!" Sumire screeched and slapped a hand to her mouth immediately.

" _No_ ," she shook her head, causing her curly hair to flail about her face wildly, " _Shut up."_

The brunette let out a light laugh at her friend's over dramatic reaction. Then again, she too had a similar reaction when he actually asked her out online.

"You're joking right?" Sumire peered.

It was Mikan's turn to shake her head now.

"It's not a joke," Hotaru answered in her stead.

"How do you know?" The green haired girl shot back.

Hotaru merely raised a delicate brow up, "You're asking _me_ that?"

"Ugh, nevermind. I forget who I'm speaking to," Sumire sighed defeatedly.

Taking another sip of her tea, the grey-eyed girl merely shrugged her shoulders, "I have my ways."

Mikan shuddered at that statement and a glance at her screen told her that her other friend also felt goosebumps rise on her body.

"Okay, answer me one more thing," Sumire spoke up, "You're talking about THE Black cat, right?"

"Yes," was the response.

"Like THE best player of all time, right?" Came another question.

"Yes."

"Like THE number one OG player, right?"

"Yes."

"Like THE richest player of our server, right?"

"Yes."

"Like THE hottest player ever, right?"

"Supposedly," Hotaru inserted in between.

"Um..." Mikan cocked her head to the side cutely and knit her eyebrows together in a thinking manner.

"...yes?" She answered hesitatingly, unsure of the latest fact her friend threw her way.

"Like THE-"

"Permzzzz~" Mikan whined and grabbed the sides of her head and proceeded to tug at her hair there. "You asked like ten questions!"

"Five, not ten," Hotaru corrected.

"Huh?" Mikan freed her hair from the abuse and looked up dumbfoundedly.

"Yeah, I guess. Anyways, that was more than one question!" She pointed an accusatory finger at the screen.

In response, Sumire simply gave a sheepish smile and defended herself with, "But I wanted to know!"

"You _did_ say to answer only one thing," the short haired girl chipped in.

Sumire gasped and placed a hand on her chest, "Queenie, whose side are you on?"

"Neither," Hotaru stated dryly.

After few more bickering from all the parties present in the video chat, Sumire managed to squeeze out every tiny detail from Mikan, with her sputtering and blushing constantly whenever Black cat was mentioned and with Hotaru and herself listening closely, not missing any word that the brunette had to say.

Starting from the craziness that happened at CelebReo's wedding parade to the moment Black cat proposed to the conversation she had with his teammates. Not a single detail was missed.

* * *

I hope you lovelies out there enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, be sure to leave a review and follow as well ^-^ it motivates me to write knowing that you guys are interested. As always, I'll see you in my next update.


	19. Chapter 16

Hi, it's Dina here ^-^ welcome back to my story! I sincerely thank those of you who read, followed and reviewed my story :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only the OCs are mine.

* * *

 **Chapter 16**

Mikan stayed up the rest of the night talking to Hotaru and Sumire, catching up on a much needed and long overdue girl talk. The girls talked away in a frenzy and at one point, Anna and Nonoko joined in the call, having already met the two online girls during a previous Skype session.

Soon enough, Anna and Nonoko left the trio to themselves with good news; they too were invited by Hotaru to join her at her new beach house for summer vacation.

At present, Mikan shifted in her position in bed when she felt something light and fluttery brush against her chin. She furrowed her brows in discomfort as the same feeling came and went. Still deep in her sleep, Mikan could barely make out the feathery sensation that resurfaced which has now travelled up to her nose.

She let out a light snort and turned her face away from whatever it was that was disturbing her once peaceful sleep. When the tickling feeling resumed on her nose, Mikan let out another snort but this time, it was loud enough that she woke herself up from it.

Eyes wide from the self shock, Mikan turned to face the noise coming from next to her bed, the sound being Nonoko's melodic giggling.

Groaning out loud, Mikan grabbed the offending object from her friend's hold and hid it under her pajama top.

"It's time to wake up." Came the bluenette's voice right by her ear.

"Says who?" Making a sound of displeasure, Mikan screwed her eyes shut tight and threw her duvet over her head to block out everything.

"Says your phone alarm," Nonoko stated matter of factly. "It's been ringing nonstop and you slept through it like the dead."

Mikan sneaked her hand out of the covers to snatch her phone from the bedside table and indeed she missed all her alarms that were set five minutes apart from each other, confirming her friend's words.

Peeking her head out from under her warm and fluffy covers, Mikan let out a sheepish smile.

"Sorry~ I'll silence the rest of the alarm now."

Nonoko playfully tsked her teeth and patted Mikan's head. "I'm gonna head out now, make sure you stay up sleepy head."

With that said, Mikan watched her friend grab her purse and leave the dorm room. Groaning once more, she kicked her legs in the air and pouted at having to wake up so early. Although 'early' was an understatement as it was currently past noon.

Pulling the object out from under her top, Mikan noticed it to be one of the fake cherry blossom petals that was used to decorate their dorm wall. Chucking the decoration on the shared table, she headed towards the bathroom to wash up.

Skipping breakfast entirely after washing up, the brunette dived straight into her beloved game where she was met with several notifications from her guild and the group chat that she recently joined.

She sent her character on auto-mode to walk around town while she dealt with the notifications that filled up her Notice Board. A _ping!_ sounded just as she started clearing up the messages sent to her from her guild and when she acknowledged it, she was slightly shocked and pleased at the same time. It was from the group chat she newly joined, thanks to her online fiancé.

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ yo miki

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ guys miki is on

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ mikiiii we missed uuu

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ yeaa, u didnt come on yesterday ;-;

 _They missed me?_ Mikan thought with pleasant surprise. She didn't know that these guys were going to wait for her. She scrolled the chat up to see that they had messaged her yesterday asking her why she didn't come on.

 _Animal-Lover:_ It's great to have you on, shall we all go on a mission? There's a tough quest we want to take up and your abilities would really help for this one

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ we almost died yesterday bc of stupid monkey here 😩😩

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ i was doing my job just fine, ur just not a good support 😡

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ we needed miki thats what it was

Mikan felt touched and amused by their interactions but there was something nipping at the back of her brain. Something was off and she couldn't place her finger on it.

The brunette racked her brain for what she could be forgetting but couldn't come up with anything. Not until she saw the next message, that is.

 _Animal-Lover:_ By the way Miki, when is the wedding?

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ oh yeaa u guys plannin to stay engaged forever?

 _Oh crap._

That's what Mikan forgot and she let her head fall onto the table with a heavy thud. How could she forget such an important thing? She was supposed to hop on the game yesterday and finalize the wedding details with Black cat. But because she was so caught up in the conversation with Sumire and Hotaru, she had completely forgotten to check back in the game.

Scolding herself out loud for her poor memory, Mikan lifted her head back up to come face to face with more messages from the group chat.

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ miki y arent u answrrinnnng

 _MonkeysCanFlyLikeMe:_ is she dying? 🙀

 _IKnowAllYourSecrets:_ oh nooo should we call help

 _Animal-Lover:_ Can you guys not do this? 😑 Just check her location in the game, she's probably busy with a quest.

Mikan mentally apologized to them for not responding but she had a good reason for it. There was a more pressing issue at hand and she wanted to talk to her online fiancé first.

She exited the chat momentarily to check the social tab, she wanted to see if Black cat was online. When she confirmed that he was on, she sent him a _whisper_ message.

 _MikiOrange:_ hey

 _MikiOrange:_ sorry to keep you waiting! I know I said I'll come on to read the wedding details yesterday and finalize them but I got caught up with something ㅠ.ㅠ

 _Black cat:_ Hn

 _MikiOrange:_ You're not mad are you?

 _Black cat:_ No, I have no reason to be. Why would you think that?

 _MikiOrange:_ because I made you wait twice now so I thought you would be...y'know, mad or at least leave me messages

Mikan was about to type another message when Black cat's next response surprised her.

 _Black cat:_ Because he would bother you for things like this right?

 _H-how?_ Her eyes widened in shock at his words that struck bulls eye. CelebReo would always spam her inbox whenever she was late or forgot to get on to go on couple quests with him.

 _Black cat:_ Small things like this doesn't bother me, everyone has a reason for what they do.

 _MikiOrange:_ I know but still..

 _Black cat:_ It's just a game, there's nothing to get angry over not making to a quest on time.

 _MikiOrange:_ But it's not just a quest this time! This is about our wedding...so of course, I would feel bad

 _Black cat:_ And I'm sure you have a good reason for not showing up yesterday, no?

Mikan felt awed by how patient, rational, and calm this man was. Most people nowadays would jump to conclusions without even hearing the other person out. Her respect and admiration for him just jumped another level.

 _MikiOrange:_ yeah, I do

 _Black cat:_ My point exactly.

 _Black cat:_ You don't have to worry about me giving you back lash.

Mikan was about to thank him and tell him how she appreciated his understanding when his next words caused her to squeak out loud.

 _Black cat:_ I'll be good to you.

Her heart might as well have melted at his sweet words. Mikan stared at those words intently as if to burn them into her brain so that it forever stays in her memory.

 _MikiOrange:_ Thank you :)

 _MikiOrange:_ You don't know how much that means to me

 _MikiOrange:_ I won't take advantage of your patience though, I promise I won't forget again but I might be late sometimes hehe ^-^'

 _Black cat_ : If you didn't show up for the actual wedding, then I'll have to do something about that tardiness of yours.

 _MikiOrang_ e: yeah? And what would you do?

 _Black cat_ : I think I might just have to punish you.

Mikan's mind literally exploded at that. Fighting a furious and fast growing blush, her mind couldn't stop repeating what he had said to her.

 _MikiOrange:_ wha 😳

 _MikiOrange:_ what's that supposed to mean!

 _Black cat:_ It's whatever you want it to be.

 _MikiOrange:_ bah! You're impossible sometimes 😣

 _Black cat_ : You're interesting

 _MikiOrange:_ hah? Idk if I should be offended so I'll take it as a compliment

 _MikiOrange:_ thank you very much

 _Black cat:_ I think I'm starting to like you a lot more now.

 _MikiOrange:_ 😦

 _MikiOrange:_ you're saying you didn't like me that much before?

 _MikiOrange:_ le gasp!

 _MikiOrange:_ Much astrociousness!

 _Black cat_ : ... I shouldn't have said anything.

 _MikiOrange:_ Such scandalousness! 😱😱😱

 _Black cat:_ I have regrets.

Mikan sported a large grin on her face, laughter a constant presence during her conversation with Black cat. Happiness swelled in her heart at the amount of attention he was giving her and the semi-romantic moments that had occurred between the both of them. From the forehead kiss two days prior and the kind-of-sweet words he mentioned to her not too long ago.

As the jokes died down, they finally tackled the main topic at hand - the wedding and the parade. Black cat gave her the details and Mikan fought it at first but ended up giving her approval of the plan. Not because she voluntarily gave it but because Black cat would not have the wedding parade any less than the most lavish it could be.

The brunette was very much surprised at the scale of the wedding and couldn't help the anticipation seeping into her for the event. How her soon-to-be online husband is able to afford it, she did not know but did not question it either.

After finalizing the plan, the duo announced it in the group chat where the boys there tackled her for the no show and no response. Mikan laughed it off and as a way to make up to them, she let them know that she'll play with them till dinner time.

As the sun set and the moon replaced its role, the light illuminated from it shone through the dorm and reflected off the laptop screen. Mikan's stomach let out an unnatural sound and she looked at the time on the clock hanging above Anna's desk. As her eyes strained to read where the hands were pointing at, she finally noticed the lack of sunlight.

Mikan finished off the current quest with the group and soon after, she bid Black cat and her new online friends goodbye so that she could fill her empty stomach.

Pulling a large hoodie over her head, she grabbed her keys and her purse off her bedside table and headed out to buy some street food.

As she walked out her dorm and onto the sidewalk where the moon lit up the path for her, her mind wandered back to her interactions with Black cat today. It didn't go unnoticed to her that he hadn't pried in her personal life and pressured her as to what the reason was for not showing up the day before.

How she ended up meeting such a respectful man was beyond her. Mikan thought to herself in bliss, a shy smile creeping up on her features.

* * *

I hope you lovelies enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, be sure to leave a review and follow as well ^-^ it motivates me to write knowing that you guys are interested. As always, I'll see you in my next update.


	20. Chapter 20

Hi lovelies, this is Dina here. It's a really long post so bear with me :)

I know this post won't make a lot of you happy but I've made my decision to stop posting on Fanfiction and focus on the Wattpad phone app. It's just so much easier for me as the author to write (and especially to be able to interact with you guys) without having to make an official document like this and go through several steps to post it. It's time consuming and inconvenient, especially when I'm out a lot and don't have that kind of time and easy access to a personal laptop.

Wattpad is really easy to use and has interactive features such as the "conversation" tab where the author and readers can all interact with each other like any other social media. You guys can also make comments on anything, whether it's on one or two or more paragraphs in a chapter or on my home page, there is that ability for everyone to interact with each other. An important note to point out, if I or another reader wishes to respond back to a comment here on Fanfiction, it ends up as a private message. Whereas, it is public for everyone to see on Wattpad if that is the intention of the message.

As someone who grew up reading on Fanfiction, I have a lot of love and adoration for this site. I used this site a lot during my childhood and early teenage years because I wanted to read other people's stories and their perspectives on my favorite mangas and animes. I wanted to see how they would put their own spin to the original series and mainly, I just couldn't get enough of my favorite mangas and wanted to continue reading more about the characters. This is the place I would go to when I was depressed, happy or angry and I decided one day that it was my turn to give back to this community. I wanted to provide that same happiness and comfort to the many readers out here just as I have received them from many authors before. While I'm on the topic of giving back, readers alike should also give back to the authors by providing feedback on their work. One comment can really make a difference for authors, it's almost like a "payment" for their hard work. You have to remember that a lot of authors take up a lot of their time, ranging from hours to days, just to write a high quality chapter so it won't hurt to take a minute out of your time to write a comment and leave a follow. As I've been on both sides, as a reader and an author, I know how both parties feel. Sometimes it's easy as readers to just read and move on to the next chapter/story without leaving feedback and I understand this completely but remember that it gives authors that extra motivation to continue writing. I'm not saying all this because I'm desperate for comments or follows, I'm saying this because it's all about giving back to each other in this kind of community. It works both ways for a community to keep running and I speak for a lot of authors out there because I know majority of them probably feel the same. However, this is by no way of me discrediting those who do give back to the authors. To the few of you who has been so loyal and always commenting on each of my chapters and giving me feedback, thank you so much. You guys are truly amazing, just know that I appreciate it so much and that a lot of chapters I post is because of you guys.

It's actually such an irony, I speak about increasing the interactions with one another when in reality, I have 2x more interaction on Fanfiction than I do on Wattpad. One would think it would be best for me to stay on Fanfiction as a lot of my readers are from here and I have the most follows and comments on this site, but unfortunately, I gotta do what I gotta do that would make things easier for me to carry on writing which ultimately is to give you guys something to enjoy.

I hope I'm not asking too much from you guys to be more interactive and to switch to the Wattpad app (or even on the website if you guys don't have a phone), especially when I've been slacking a lot myself which I truly _truly_ feel so bad about. I don't want to make an excuse but I really do have a reason for putting off writing for so long. My life got extremely busy because my career kinda took off all of a sudden after my exams ended and I've been putting pretty much 100% of my focus in it. Not only that but I've been really unmotivated to write for a lot of reasons, one of them being that my career consumes a lot of my energy. But recently, I posted a chapter and I got really good feedback here on fanfiction and I felt so motivated to write more because of you guys. In fact, my creativity juices are overflowing to the point that I've been writing on the Wattpad app during my breaks at work and I actually wrote about four different drafts for the next chapter. They all have different paths that lead to **significant** changes in the story and each one has different elements in it that builds the plot line.

To end this post, I will miss this site a lot and I guess..I won't be seeing you guys on my next update here anymore. Any chapter I post going forward will be on Wattpad only so I encourage all of you to make an account there, it's completely free. My account name is Dinasauuur and I hope to see all of you there. Just to leave a tiny spoiler, I think I already know which draft I want to use and you definitely don't want to miss the next chapter! Call me a genie because I will be granting a lot of people's wish in my next update ^-^

As always, thank you lovelies for being patient and understanding towards me. I will definitely not disappoint you from now on, I promise to write whenever I have free time.


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